How an FOB price for a polo is built, line by line
Fabric, trims, cut-make-trim, washing, overheads and freight. A worked costing for 1,000 piqué polos, so you can see what moves the price.
A day on line 7
From the cutting table to the carton: how 1,200 polos are made in a shift.
Line 7 makes polo shirts. At 8.30 am, cut bundles arrive from the cutting room, each tagged with size, colour and a bundle number so that every panel in a garment comes from the same part of the fabric roll.
The line has 34 operators and 38 machines. Shoulders are joined first, then the collar is attached, the placket is set, sleeves go in and side seams close with vents. Each operator does one or two operations, and bundles move along the line on a table rather than a conveyor, which keeps the pace steady.
At three points along the line, a quality checker pulls garments at random and checks measurements and stitches. If a fault appears, it goes back to the operator who made it within minutes, not days. At the end, every polo is checked, trimmed, pressed and folded.
By 5.30 pm, line 7 has made about 1,200 polos. Before the cartons are sealed, our own auditor opens a sample of them, just as your buyer’s inspector will.
