Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) has expressed its willingness to collaborate with Primark on the latter’s sustainability strategy.
The association expressed it on Saturday at a meeting between BGMEA leaders, Primark and its parent company Associated British Foods (ABF) leaders, according to a statement.
The BGMEA delegation, led by its President Faruque Hassan, met with Primark CEO Paul Marchant.
BGMEA Vice President Miran Ali, directors Asif Ashraf and Abdullah Hil Rakib and Director of Legal Services and Company Secretary ABF Paul Lister, Primark Cares Director Lynne Walker, and Group Director Supply Chain, Sourcing and Quality Juan Chaparro also attended the meeting held in London on Friday.
The BGMEA expressed its support for the objectives Primark has set out to change the ways its clothes are made, halve its carbon emissions across its wider supply chain and improve the lives of the workers in the supply chain.
Bangladesh is Primark’s second largest sourcing market and home to many of Primark’s strategic suppliers and their factories, according to the statement.
The BGMEA’s support, as one of the country’s largest trade associations for the garment industry, can play a valuable role in helping engage its members in Primark’s sustainability goals.
Both parties discussed the new commitments which Primark will work towards over the next decade in greater detail: Primark has been deliberately ambitious in its goals, stretching targets across its use of recycled materials, environmental footprint and how it will take a leadership role in improving the lives and wellbeing of workers in its supply chain.
This means that delivering many of the new commitments will rely on driving change throughout Primark’s wider supply chain, so gaining the support of external stakeholders, such as the BGMEA, is important, it added.
Both Primark and the BGMEA shared goals around sustainability, in particular around workers’ wellbeing and skills development.
