Social Procurement: Westpac and The Social Outfit
The Social Outfit and Workwear Group collaborate to manufacture corporate uniforms for Westpac
In early 2023, The Social Outfit, a Sydney-based social enterprise, Workwear Group to produce 2000 scarves and pocket squares for Westpac's uniforms. The collaboration marked a significant step forward for The Social Outfit, who provide employment and training to women from refugee and new migrant backgrounds through their ethical manufacturing studio and retail store.
The contract saw Workwear Group supply the precut fabric for the scarves and pocket squares to The Social Outfit to be hemmed, labelled and packed. To assist The Social Outfit to deliver the order, Workwear Group provided support on requirements of bulk production orders, including care labelling requirements, how to pack items for automated warehouse systems and carton packing requirements. Workwear Group also paid 50% of the agreed manufacturing price up front to assist The Social Outfit with managing daily costs.
The Social Outfit faces higher operating costs than traditional, for-profit manufacturing businesses due to the organisation’s extensive training and support programs for their employees. This can make it challenging for The Social Outfit to compete for government and corporate uniform contracts. Partnering with Workwear Group allowed The Social Outfit to be more competitive on contract price and work on elements of the production order within their manufacturing capabilities. Longer term, high volume orders like uniforms can provide a reliable revenue stream to support The Social Outfit’s training and education programs, and deliver social and environmental impact metrics for the contracting business or government department.
As a result of securing the contract with Westpac, The Social Outfit were able to offer significantly increased paid hours of work to their sewing machinists and invest in upskilling and training a number of their new employees. This is a critical investment in skills and training by The Social Outfit due to sewing machinists being a very high demand occupation in the TCF industry where severe skills shortages often impact production.Additionally, The Social Outfit invested in accreditation with Sedex, an internationallyrecognised social compliance auditing body. Securing the Westpac contract provides The Social Outfit with a template for future uniform procurement agreements and discussionswith other potential clients are underway based on the success of their collaboration with Westpac
Originally published in the Australian Fashion Council’s submission to the Inquiry into the procurement practices of goverment agencies NSW and its impact on social development of the people of NSW. Reprinted here with permission.
