School clothing makers happy about Government deal to buy stock

Manufacturers and retailers of school uniforms in Barbados have welcomed a proposal by the Mia Mottley administration for Government to step in and buy 70 per cent of their stock in light of them having no sales this year as schools are kept online.

On Wednesday, Mottley announced that following initial meetings with makers and sellers of school uniforms here, a decision was taken to form a compact with them, which would see government relieving them of 70 per cent of uniforms that are available on the island.

The agreement with the garment manufacturers and sellers though, is that they would commit to carrying out certain transformation within their operations and retool and retrain workers.

This idea comes just over a month after the manufacturers and retailers complained that they were collectively left with millions of dollars in uniforms due to no face-to-face classes taking place.

Those who spoke with Barbados TODAY said they did not mind making some changes to their operations to become more efficient and they welcomed the proposal of the government but await the details.

Popular retailer of school uniforms Eddy Abed told Barbados TODAY he was pleased that a proposal was now on the table.

“The proposal was made. I am not sure if that is going to be the final way that the [Government] will ultimately assist the parties involved, but there is a sense of urgency and I can only say that it is at the highest level of discussion right now and we hope that something will come of it very shortly,” said Abed.

One manufacturer of school attire, who requested anonymity, told Barbados TODAY while she has not yet been made aware of the plan and was not involved in the discussions, the move was most welcomed.

“This is something we very much welcome. We really need the work right now because things are not the same as they were,” she said.

“We, like many others, are just hanging on. So anything to give us an ease is welcomed news at this time,” she stressed.

Some of the main garment manufacturers, retailers and wholesalers of school uniforms have had initial discussions with Prime Minister Mia Mottley and officials from the ministries of Education and  Finance.

Those discussions are expected to continue in the coming weeks so that the details of the proposal could be ironed out and the agreements put in place.

The agreement is expected to mirror aspects of the Barbados Employment and Sustainable Transformation (BEST) programme, which was put in place over a year ago to help keep the tourism sector at a time when there were no earnings from international travel due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Under that $300 million scheme, tourism-related operations are able to access funds for training and retention of staff at 80 per cent of their salary and also to carry out upgrades up to $2 million on their properties. marlonmadden@barbadostoday.bb