Question:
this company that touts its popularity for promoting the youth
sub-culture etc... whatever role it claims t have in the UK. Dr Marten's
boots are a tradition, and yes, they are moving production to Asia. Why?
Because as their spokesman just claimed on East-Anglia news... Labour in
Asia is 10% the cost of English labour... $30 per month...
Dr Marten's, based in Irthlingborough, Northamptonshire, 800 jobs are going.
Irthlingborough, as small town: no other work there. Time after time after
time... what are essentially low paid UK jobs are being sacrificed to
transfer production to Asia where
And do you know what?
Answer:
I do know that once, this company was a stalwart of the local
community and Doc Martens were simply decent work boots. They cost
around £35 /pair new tops, and if you were broke, you could go to
their factory shop and buy seconds or you could get seconds from local
markets for £10-20.
Then one day some fool who wasn't a skin, decided that DM's would make
a great fashion accessory, and the price shot up to £70 pair. Doubled,
that is.
They sold like hotcakes. Everybody wanted them, the whole world wanted
them. They became 'designer label' goods which needed 'outlets'.
Posh DM shop opens in Convent Garden. Not bad for a common workaday
oil resistant plain leather boot.
People with not much money also wanted them but Mr Griggs decided that
they shalt not have cheap DM's that weren't good enough for the £70
market, banned their sale to market traders and confined factory
seconds to the factory shop. Then even that wasn't good
enough...factory seconds were no longer allowed to be sold here at all
because it undermined the price of perfect ones, so they were sold to
Romanians or Africans or something....didn't matter how much for as
long as they weren't sold here. Shop prices went over £100/pair IIRC.
Then they turned to the US to increase their fortune even more opening
a subsidiary, and last year opened factory outlets there. Business
plummeted post-9/11. Doc Martens lost their popularity and the company
desperately fished about for new designs to shore it up.
Last year the company made a loss of 20.5 million after having been in
steady business here for over 100 years.
what did you expect. firstly the boots won't sell for any less
just because labour is cheaper. Why? Because "we have to make up for the
lower sales volume". and why lower sales volume? Because people out of
work can't afford the bloody things. And wny are people out of work?
Because Dr Martens moved its manufacturing facilities.
It's a circular situation which benefits no one but the overfed feline
MD, who can run all the way to the bank with his increased profits.
