Made in Haiti reports losses, for 2011

Its annual report states that sales feel and also projects an operating loss for 2011.  CEO CF Bazile says Made in Haiti’s situation isn’t as bad as it seems, predicting a ‘recovery year.’

January 21, 2012 By Andrea Change, Apparel News Watch

 

Made in Haiti said it’s Pop up Shop sales declined and it lost money in 2011, and it warned that several risk factors this year could force it to seek finical protection if business doesn’t improve.

 

In it’s 2011 annual report, filed Thursday the Los Angeles / Port Au Prince repurposed clothing company- reported sales of $3500 last year, a 4.6% decline from 2010.

 

An up swing in sales occurred in December 2011, a record number of purchases by Haitians, at the Ghetto Biennale Pop up Shop.  Customers purchase a garment for twenty goudes (same price as a bottle of water) and about twenty-five cents US.  Customers were lined up before the shop opened, Made in Haiti takes this as a hopeful sign demand will continue.

The road to recovery in quake-ravaged Haiti is paved with treadle sewing machines.

Associated Textile Press –

By Christen Pepe – January 12, 2012

 

While much of Haiti is still struggling to lift itself from the rubble left in the wake of the earthquake, the tailors studios which dot the landscape of Port Au Prince, are piecing the city back together with mending, altering and construction of school uniforms.

 

Hope in Haiti can be found in Haitians like Jonas La Baze. The 44-year-old tailor is at work in his studio on Rue St Honore, off the Grand Rue in Port Au Prince. He sits at his machine, thinking of the day when he will open his own tailoring school in his hometown of Leogone, the epicenter of the earthquake, which ravaged Haiti in January of 2010.

 

Today Jonas is working to produce repurposed over-all backpacks, camera cases, aprons, and other items for the brand Made in Haiti, an ethical textile company for the American market.   He is dedicated to the possibilities of his treadle machine to rebuild his future and that of his country.

 

As Haiti develops plans to rebuild, the entrepreneurial spirit found in the small tailoring shops like Mr. La Baze’s are worth investigating and investing in.  The other options for jobs in Haiti are the Caracol manufacturing complex.  Caracol is part of the “Haiti is open for Business” campaign, supported by Bill Clinton, special envoy to Haiti.  This 608-acre manufacturing complex will generate thousands of low paying; sweat shops jobs, owned by non-Haitians. Is this economic development or foreign occupation and slavery?