The retailer is among several global businesses that have come under fire after it was revealed that clothes they sold were manufactured in the kinds of unsafe conditions seen in the factory in Tazreen, and even on occasion contracted out by their suppliers to other agents.
Speaking to Reuters about the implication of the fire, which killed more than 100 workers and raised serious questions over the safety conditions in the garment supply chain, Wal-Mart vice president of ethical sourcing, Rajan Kamalanathan, said the company needed to introduce greater measures of control.
Wal-Mart has said repeatedly that its Faded Glory clothing should not have been in production at the Tazreen factory, a facility Bangladeshi authorities said was not safe for use. The building was not cleared to be used by any party manufacturing garments for the world’s largest retailer.
Wal-Mart says that in 2011 alone it audited over 9,000 factories globally to check whether its standards were being met. But still, Wal-Mart acknowledges it only controls its supply chain up to a certain point. If suppliers hired by the company in turn hire agents who then line up production, the seemingly tight controls Wal-Mart has put in place can fail.
In his first interview since the November 24 Tazreen Fashions fire, Kamalanathan said the company’s current controls could only go so far in preventing a factory Wal-Mart did not approve of from making its clothes, as was the case here.
“If a supplier or an agent chooses to subcontract without informing us, then that is a problem,” Kamalanathan told the news agency. “We can put all kinds of controls in place, but if they don’t tell us where they’re putting our order, then that is a problem.
“We have a contract with the supplier and that’s where our control is and where our relationship is,” Kamalanathan said, adding that the lack of control down the supply chain represents a challenge not just for Wal-Mart, but for the industry overall.
“We are actively thinking about how to better work with suppliers who work with agents,” he said. “This is something we are talking about internally and across the industry.”
Among other things, retailers and clothing designers have been talking about the possibility of fire safety codes that would be written into contracts with suppliers, although those efforts are still at the early stages.
