DENIM MANUFACTURING

[ringring]

Lead times depend on many variables.

Fabric availability, as mentioned above, is one. And this can depend on a myriad of variables itself. Stock, payment (cash is king), relationship with supplier, timing (whether you are ordering in peak season or not) etc etc.

After that, you have sewing and washing (and perhaps other stuff like printing, embroideries etc). Timing on those too can vary.

Also factor in communication and service. Poor communication can and will slow a delivery time up dramatically. And this isn't just from the suppliers side. If the buying company is slow with QC, pattern cutting, whatever, then delivery will be slower.

Last of all is the physical location. Obviously the closer the country is to the UK, the quicker the delivery will be (all things being equal - which they never are). For Turkey that means under a week by road haulage. For Pakistan it's around 26 days by ship and China is just a few days more. These times can be drastically improved upon depending if you're willing to pay for a faster ship, sea-air freight, or air freight. Bear in mind that Air freight costs about ten times more than shipping by sea.

Just google up some shipping companies and you'll find shipping times from most countries.

Strengths and weaknesses of each country is rather subjective, and would depend on individual companies and the buyers' needs. But the main factors to weigh up would be price, quality and lead times. You could possibly look at political stability (not really a big issue with these particular countries), import taxes and quotas, and currency fluctuation too.