H&M wants to manufacture some products in SA

JOHANNESBURG - Global retailer H&M says it is committed to manufacturing some of its products locally as part of an intervention sparked by the backlash it received over a racist advert.

In January, the retailer ran an advert with a picture of a black boy in a hoodie labelled “coolest monkey in the jungle”.

H&M REALLY had a Black boy wearing a hoodie that says “coolest monkey in the jungle” on the front of it?
As much as I recognize the racism blatantly on display, as a parent of Black children, l have to wonder what in the hell were they doing signing off on this? pic.twitter.com/4IF9ehVMxS
— LEFT🕋 (@LeftSentThis) January 8, 2018

H&M officials are among those attending the Anti-Racism Network conference being held in Auckland Park on Thursday.

H&M's advert drew a lot of outrage with the Economic Freedom Fighters targeting the retailer and forcing it to close several of its stores.

The party had also demanded that H&M shut down its operations.

Since then, the brand says it has learned its lesson and is trying to rectify the damage caused by the debacle.

Country manager Oldouz Mirzaie says one of the areas H&M is considering local production.

“This is quite a lengthy process and unfortunately, currently, investigations show that a majority of this criteria, the South African manufacturing market, is not there yet. These parameters are currently not met.”

Mirzaie says the retailer will also be working with local designers to avoid any similar incidents.

(Edited by Thapelo Lekabe)

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