Reshoring: a strategic renewal of luxury clothing supply chains

The paper investigates the reshoring strategy of Burberry . Burberry is an iconic British high-end clothing brand. The company has been chosen as a case study to explore the recent move towards reshoring, because of its changes of leadership, business model and evolving supply chain strategy from 1997 to early 2016 provide a timely and pertinent context. Burberry has realigned its business towards a brand-led and customer-centric model. The supply chain strategy has involved consolidating production already located in the UK and reshoring offshore manufacturing activities UK, in order to support  brand repositioning as quintessentially British and the company’s refocus on heritage products. The increased managerial control of the supply chain, together with the close proximity of design and manufacture, enables the promise of quality and brand provenance to be fulfilled. Findings suggest that reshoring and increasing control of supply chain operations can enhance value and firm competitiveness.