Starter Kit. Idea 405 of 500. Cluster 20
Uniform and workwear manufacturing for the region's hotels and hospitals
The mechanism, from the book
Sri Lankans make the world's underwear to the world's standard, and the country has no fashion brand of its own that the world has heard of.
The first step
Phone the housekeeping or purchasing managers of three hotels and one private hospital and ask when they last bought uniforms, from where, and at what price per set. Get a quote from a local factory for the same garments with the hotel's crest. A single purchase order, even for one department, is your proof.
- Who pays first
- A hotel group or hospital in the region that reorders uniforms every year and would buy from a factory nearby with shorter delivery.
- What leaves today
- Hotels and hospitals buy uniforms from abroad that island factories could make; a local supplier keeps that recurring order here.
Ask first
- Sri Lanka Standards Institution. Ask whether any standard exists for workwear fabric that buyers might ask for.
- Department of the Registrar of Companies. Ask which registration suits a workwear supply business.
Check before you spend
Permission to use each client's crest, the fabric and fire standards hospitals need, and the factory's delivery times in writing.
Find out these three numbers
- When did hotels last buy uniforms, and at what price?
- What does a local factory quote for the same sets?
- How often does each department reorder?
A comparison from the book
Zermatt's taxis. Chapter Five
"the money spent on them stays close to home rather than leaving for a factory in another country"
Hotels buying uniforms made nearby keep that money circulating close to home.
The test
Does it keep value that now leaves the island, or build the proof that lets somebody else do so?
From the appendix of Why Not Sri Lanka? by Dr Maheshika Halbeisen. The idea and the mechanism are the book's; this kit was written for the site.