Goverment backs supermarket Embroidered Schoolwear

We have had a lot of feedback from our customers regarding this subject.
Here are my thoughts.
Embroidery and school wear is no different to selling anything else. The grocers, butchers and fishmongers all suffered as a consequence of the Giant supermarkets.
The problem (as far as the government is concerned) with embroidered school wear in the UK has been that schools have had arrangements with independent retailers who were allowed sole rights to sell the schools embroidered garments, which are Copyright of the school in exchange for money.
The Office for Fair Trading reported....
In the UK a third of schools who have an arrangement with a single school uniform supplier benefit financially from this arrangement.
84% of schools insisted that the uniform must be purchased from a designated supplier or from the school.
Exclusive outlets were even more expensive when compared with prices charged in supermarkets: a 150 per cent difference overall (108 per cent primary school items and 173 per cent secondary school items).
So don't put your head in the sand and say it will not effect you!
At ETC Supplies, we have been developing ways of fighting back.
An independent cannot compete on price.
You have to buy from wholesalers, who in turn buy from importers who in turn buy from manufacturers. So even before you can sell the goods you are faced with three layers of profit making. The supermarkets use these three layers as their profit, plus their bulk buying and logistics make the goods cheaper.
Yes, you may argue about quality. But when faced with competition such as seven day opening, late night shopping, money back guarantees and half price uniforms many of your customers will jump ship.
The only option you have is to be smarter and offer something different.
It will take the supermarkets a long time to catch up with you.
At ETC Supplies we are working on developments and products that only we can supply. So think about it!
Who do you buy your consumables from?
Who did you buy your embroidery machine from?
Who did you buy your digitising system from?
I bet these are the same companies that will use your profits to supply the supermarkets so they can take your business away.
Here are some useful links for more information.

http://www.oft.gov.uk/shared_oft/reports/consumer_protection/schooluniformssummary.pdf

http://www.themoneystop.co.uk/092009/3550.html

http://www.oft.gov.uk/news/press/2006/135-06

Tesco Embroidered School Uniforms

TESCO OFFERING EMBROIDERED SCHOOLWEAR
Tesco are now launching a scheme to offer embroidered schoolwear, having already targeted 1,448 state schools in Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow, Sheffield and Hertfordshire.
This development has been welcome by the LGA, Trading Standards and the Government who have all been pushing schools and Retailers to offer cheaper school uniforms.
Tesco are looking at offering an embroidered sweatshirt for £5.00 and an embroidered polo shirt for as little as £3.60 with them looking to offer other garments over time. And no doubt with Tesco starting, it will not be long before the other leading supermarket chains follow suit.
This will, without a doubt, affect our customers, small and large businesses alike.
As one of the leading suppliers, here, at ETC we had envisaged such a situation occurring, and have been working on solutions to protect our customers and give them a competitive edge to be able to compete with the supermarket chains.
We are the final stages of developing a product which will allow our customers to compete with the corporate giants. This is exclusive to ETC and not available anywhere else!!
To make sure you are kept in the loop and up to date, continue to look out for our mail merges or contact us to make sure you receive all information.
This is another reason to show why you should buy from ETC! We are always at the forefront of product innovation and we will help you stay ahead of these giants.