Customer Part of ETI?

[TodaysFashionLtd]

Hi,

My company sells fashion and costume jewellery in the UK. We import from China, Yiwu city, we use a few different suppliers their.

Our intended customers are big name companies within the UK selling fashion jewellery, for example, Accessorize, New look, Next, Jigsaw, Primark, Zara, etc. We are at this time sending out samples etc to the customers to get them to sign us as a supplier to their business. We have had an email back from a company saying basically, they are a member of the ETI, the Ethical Trading Initiative, and want to know if we have some kind of audit report.

I don't quite understand what they are asking but i have done some research on the ETI. Its about stopping child labour and things like that basically. My company now needs some form of proof that the factories we use dont employ children, and treat their workers correctly and that the working conditions are ok, etc.

We are willing to get our suppliers factories audited, but i am not sure if i am to use some kind of specialist company, or if i can approach an auditors i have found on the internet.

I found a company on alibaba trading website, the link is: hxxp://tonyinspection.blogsome.com

Now, we will use this company if the people we are wanting to sell to will accept whatver he produces. It just seems to me that you would need some kind of ETI certified auditor to do it so your customers believe you fully etc.

Anyone any ideas or can help me out here? Propa stuck as they say

Cheers, Gary

[maruby]

Why not get in touch with the ETI and have a chat with them about the best way to do this now you already have suppliers you are working with?

For the future it would be worth considering only working with manufacturers who comply with working standards such as those endorsed by ETI because of the number of businesses who look for this accreditition when they look for new suppliers :)

[TodaysFashionLtd]

Cheers for that reply,

Yeh not long after i posted i did get in touch with the ETI Direct. They sent me some information by email but it wasnt really much use as id already seen it elsewhere on the net.

I called up one of the customers who was asking about the ETI. It turns out that the company itself has its own auditors i think based in china, that wil do the audit for you, I dont know if there will be a charge though? They also say that they can certify other auditors to do it to the standards monsoons wants.

Im a bit unsure as to the first thing though, as if monsoon were to directly go to our manufacturers factory and audit it, could they not just approach them directly and choose them as their own supplier? Instead of going through our company to order the goods?

I dont know if there is any law against this, but can you understand where im coming from? We have margins, which obviously they want to avoid paying...

[maruby]

Right, can you try and get the name of the auditors from them so you can set it up yourself?

Also if you can find out who they are you might be able to ascertain who certifies the certifier iyswim and then choose another auditor under the same umbrella just to be on the safe side.

I can see why you are concerned now - are you a member of a trade body who might be able to advise?