Suppliers have accused the Children’s Place (TCP) of cancelling orders worth million of dollars from Ethiopia. The company has demanded retroactive rebates on products that had been shipped before the crisis.
One supplier said, his company had lost its credit line after losing nearly $1m because of contract cancellations. Another supplier said that although TCP had started to pay back some money, the company still owed it hundreds of thousands of dollars.
However, Gregory Poole, Chief Supply Chain Officer, TCP, said the company had cancelled fewer than 3 per cent of orders from Ethiopia. That had dire consequences for their business.
The Children’s Place is one of four leading US apparel brands sourcing goods from Ethiopia, alongside PVH, JC Penney and H&M. In its annual report last year, TCP cited Ethiopia as a “key sourcing region”. The Worker Rights Consortium said at least seven factories in Ethiopia were producing clothing for TCP stores, employing about 15,000 workers.
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