Why do school uniforms cost so much?
Where do school uniforms come from, and why do they cost so much? Adele Redmond reports.
An $1800 bill for school uniforms saw one family turn to the City Mission for urgent help. Single mother-of-two Victoria Harlan, of Christchurch, had no choice but to ask for help when she discovered the cost of her children’s Shirley Boys’ and Avonside Girls’ high school uniforms.
‘‘I understand the quality of the uniforms is very good but it’s just the initial cost is a lot.’’
Her family is not alone at finding the bill too high.
Christchurch City Mission has been fielding about 20 calls a day this month from families seeking help for school uniforms.
Others are turning to Work and Income. Last year, nearly 33,000 families took out an education costs loan, totalling $7.25 million.
But school uniform suppliers say the inflation-adjusted cost has hardly shifted in 20 years, despite massive change in New Zealand’s garment industry.
They point out parents are paying for quality fabrics, and significant efforts are made to keep uniforms affordable.
Quality differences and multiple mark-ups along the supply chain may help explain why a $22 white polo shirt at one high school is more than twice the price of a similar shirt on sale at The Warehouse for $10.
THE MARK-UPS
After passing through importers, embellishers, and retailers, the mark-up on school uniform items often exceeds 100 per cent.
One importer who supplies fabric to several large uniform companies described the chain of commerce: ‘‘There’s generally a basic rule if you go from the factory to production, there’s a 10 to 15 per cent mark-up, production to the retailer is another 15 to 20 per cent. The final product going into stores, it’s pretty much open slather – could be anything from 66 per cent.’’
He has seen a kilt produced from his fabric sold at a 700 per cent mark-up.
Eric O’Brien, director of Auckland importers and embellishers Barewood Apparel, said two to three mark ups were applied between uniforms being imported, embellished, packaged, distributed and sold.
‘‘It varies, but you would expect the average mark up margin to be around 50 per cent.’’
Designing a uniform with a school, sampling, ordering, manufacturing and distributing it usually takes about six months. Suppliers rely on their past order history and a bit of ‘‘crystal ball gazing’’ to get the right numbers and sizes of each item into stores by January.
Cheaper items such as school polo shirts, generally sold for $20 to $30, are generic, bulk sourced items that are later embroidered with school’s emblem. Depending on logo’s complexity – anything from 5000 to 22,000 stitches – they can add $3.50 to $18 to the price of a shirt or blazer.
The more expensive uniform pieces are bespoke, produced for a specific school. Collars, unique colour schemes, and detailed piping all add costs for suppliers and reduce opportunities for economies of scale.
Larger sizes, wool blends, and heavier fabrics chosen for their durability also push up the price of some garments – that’s why a polo, dress shirt or pinafore can cost $20 more than another garment that looks the same to the naked eye.
But O’Brien, the former chairman of a school board for eight years, said ‘‘the reality is the ownership of the sale of the uniform is with the school board’’.
‘NATURAL CAP’ ON PRICES
Education Minister Chris Hipkins has taken aim at alleged ‘‘covert fundraising’’ via uniform sales.
The Ministry of Education is developing advice for Hipkins on ‘‘a range of payments by parents to schools’’ after he raised concerns that schools were applying ‘‘big mark ups’’.
‘‘If you look at the variability and cost of uniforms between schools it is clear that some schools are making quite a lot of money,’’ he said in 2017.
New Zealand School Trustees’ Association president Lorraine Kerr could not be reached for comment.
The Commerce Commission advises schools to be transparent with families about their uniform supply and pricing, and to ‘‘think carefully’’ about entering contracts lasting longer than three years.
In practice, contracts for uniform supply often roll over automatically and there are no legal restrictions on schools applying their own mark ups to uniform sales.
Suppliers say schools are increasingly opting for unique colour schemes and ‘‘more modern and technical’’ styles, such as softshell jackets and less scratchy wool blends, or moving back towards traditional tailored garments like blazers.
These designs are inevitably more expensive, but suppliers say schools shop around to get the right balance of price and quality.
Tight competition in the school uniform market places a ‘‘natural cap’’ on prices, NZ Uniforms chief executive David Bunnell says.
‘‘Schools are quite savvy in getting the best deal for parents. We go in with the attitude that a school uniform is an investment. It’s not just price, you do need to perform.
‘‘We feel a great sense of responsibility.’’
OFFSHORE PRODUCTION
Most New Zealand school uniforms are made in Fiji or China.
Apart from the odd merino item, nearly all the fabrics used for school uniforms are imported, usually from China. Some come from Thailand, Vietnam, India, and Italy.
Australia is also popular because its UV-treated textiles don’t bleach as quickly under the New Zealand sun, and companies here take advantage of same seasons to order smaller runs of pricier fabrics.
Fiji, which also makes many Australian school uniforms, has a cheap labour force – the minimum wage for garment workers is NZ$1.87 per hour. Consumer prices, including rents, are about 29 per cent lower than in New Zealand, according to global cost of living website Numbeo.
While its government is reviewing the minimum wage, Fiji’s Textiles, Footwear and Clothing Council has warned calls to hike it up to $4 or $5 an hour would place 7000 garment workers’ jobs in jeopardy.
New Zealand companies using Fijian factories must first import fabrics before shipping it to companies like United Apparel, the country’s largest garment manufacturer and a factory of choice for several large uniform companies.
Despite higher freight costs, China has a competitive advantage when it comes to school uniforms. Countless specialist factories can be subcontracted to meet the full run of production – materials are woven, dyed, cut, sewn and trimmed into garments ready to be embroidered or printed on arrival in New Zealand.
Schooltex, The Warehouse’s school uniform label, has contracts with about 600 local schools. Its school socks are made in Palmerston North, Gisborne and the West Coast, many primary schools’ polo shirts come from Fiji, and the company uses 18 Chinese factories.
Third-party audit firms report to The Warehouse Group’s Shanghai-based team on those factories labour practices but its head of ethical sourcing, Trevor Johnstone, says it doesn’t have ‘‘a direct line of sight’’ further back in the supply chain.
While the company has never encountered child labour at its primary suppliers, ‘‘we cannot categorically exclude the possibility of more systematic and abusive child labour practices existing with the subsidiary levels of our supply chain’’, such as parts manufacturing and raw materials, its 2018 ethical sourcing report says.
The average Chinese factory worker making clothes for The Warehouse worked 65 hours per week for an average weekly salary of NZ$221.59 in 2017. In the regions, The Warehouse contracts its garment manufacturing to, the minimum weekly wage varies from NZ$91.88 to NZ$114.85.
A breakdown for factories making Schooltex products was not available.
Johnstone said it was difficult for clothing brands contracting to China to ‘‘try to enforce a standard that might be idealised’’ elsewhere. ‘‘The normal working hours are longer and you are faced with the dilemma of either being blind to the thing, asking suppliers for a piece of paper that doesn’t mean anything . . . or [you] base your dialogue on real information.’’
Sourcing and merchandise chief executive Tania Benyon said The Warehouse Group tries to work with factories to improve conditions when problems are found. ‘‘It doesn’t help those communities if we just say, ‘You have done something wrong so we’re moving our business.’’’
Good working conditions were also front of mind for other suppliers contracting offshore.
‘‘I would be very uncomfortable about using a factory for our school uniforms unless I have been there and visited,’’ NZ Uniforms Bunnell said.
He said there was an ‘‘emotional layer’’ to keeping most of his company’s production in Fiji. ‘‘It’s probably true that it’s cheaper in China than Fiji but as long as we can produce to a price point . . . it’s kind of a philanthropic approach. We like to support the region.’’
Suppliers wanted to do more onshore production but said New Zealand didn’t have the labour force they needed. Many Kiwi dressmakers, tailors, and sewing machinists were approaching retirement and new trainees did not last long because the pay was underwhelming, suppliers said.
Ultimately, producing more school uniforms here would push their price beyond what many families could afford.
As one supplier put it: ‘‘Everyone loves to buy New Zealand made but no-one’s prepared to pay for it.’’