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Allied Feather & Down Announces Global Growth and Unique Pandemic Adaptation Strategy for Entire Supply Chain

Allied down processed material ready to ship out to partner brands

Allied Feather & Down processed material ready to ship out to partner brands

Allied is building the supply chain of the future, highlighting the brand’s resiliency, localization, decarbonization, and value proposition for partner brands.

We will continue to push for localization and resiliency to help our partners create technical, sustainable, high quality products that benefit the planet and local and regional communities.”
— Steve Uretsky, founder and CEO of Los Angeles-based ALLIED Feather + Down

MONTEBELLO, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES, November 13, 2020 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Despite the global pandemic shuttering businesses and crippling manufacturing worldwide, ALLIED Feather + Down continues expansion by opening two new facilities to increase production for both down processing and bedding production by more than 300 percent. The family-owned supplier says the opening of its Montreal processing and bedding production facility is the defining cap to an increasingly localized supply chain of the future.

Over the past decade, the outdoor and fashion industries have shifted back to the use of and reliance on natural materials. And the demand for high quality, sustainable, down insulation and cotton bedding has landed ALLIED Feather + Down, along with bedding divisions ALLIED Home and ALLIED Hospitality, in a position of growth year over year. When the Coronavirus began shutting down the global economy, it highlighted issues with contemporary business models that relied solely on massive vertical integration that often had little transparency.

As ALLIED’s partner brands and retail and direct-to-consumer bedding demand expanded, the 33-year-old pioneer in down insulation (and inventor of the Responsible Down Standard) looked closely at its global footprint and how they could grow while reducing overall carbon emissions.

The result led to the opening of several new facilities worldwide in an effort to continue to build a model of a resilient supply chain in the face of such difficulties as the Coronavirus pandemic, climate change, and increasing vulnerability of local economies. Over the last two years, ALLIED cemented facilities in the Czech Republic, Vietnam, Myanmar, Montreal, and North Carolina.

“Even prior to the pandemic, we found that by looking into strategic regions, we could provide products faster and with less impact on the planet caused by shipping materials around the globe. Working closely with our partners and retailers, we knew that the future of supply chains would require a new level of diversification. While we had a well diversified raw material supply, making a commitment to open facilities in new regions would allow us to equally diversify production for both down insulation and bedding. Doing so would allow us to reduce the carbon footprint of our products, have a more diversified workforce and offer even greater levels of traceability,” said Steve Uretsky, founder and CEO of Los Angeles-based Allied Feather + Down.

According to senior energy analyst Sarah Golden with the GreenBiz group, “While I knew vaguely how globally interconnected our economy was, I didn’t really think about it until parts started to break down. It took everything falling apart for me to understand how it fits together. Nearly 75 percent of U.S. companies have seen supply chain disruptions, and an analysis of supply chains in early March showed that the world’s largest 1,000 companies or their suppliers had more than 12,000 facilities in quarantined areas of China, Italy and South Korea.” And that was in March.

This increasingly diversified supply chain and manufacturing hubs have already proven effective. When the pandemic took hold in China and then in Europe, ALLIED saw major supply chain disruption but were able to respond quickly and effectively to a sudden decrease of global down supply as well as a significant increase in the amount of bedding that people, now stuck at home, were purchasing online.

Additionally, none of the ALLIED apparel partners saw disruption in their down insulation supply as ALLIED was able to work with existing commitments and come up with solutions in the midst of the chaos. Retail bedding division ALLIED Home was also in a position to increase capacity, calling upon its bedding facilities globally to fill the needs of retail partners when they saw a dramatic, unforeseen and sudden demand.

“Local supply chains equal resilience,” Golden continued. “People smarter than me have asserted that when we look at the cost of resilience holistically, we can’t afford not to act.”

As we look to the future beyond the pandemic, companies will have to not only ask how growth can serve their company, but how a company’s growth can help bring value to localized economies. It’s a mutually beneficial approach to corporate growth and one ALLIED is bullish on, allowing greater contribution and partnerships on a regional and local level.

“We have always asked how we can better serve our global customers, but now it is just as important to look to how our presence also brings external value to a community and region. We believe in strategic growth that not only builds value to ALLIED but is done in a responsible way that reduces impact on the environment and adds to local communities. We believe that this investment in local communities worldwide positions ALLIED to excel in the new normal,” continued Uretsky. ALLIED’s growth into Vietnam, as an example, has uncovered a relatively untapped down supply chain able to bring more income to the local economy from what was previously treated as a waste product. ALLIED’s European facility allows for more in-depth work with regional collector communities, including helping them create education centers.

ALLIED’s investment in new production facilities will continue to increase localization and reduce its carbon footprint. “What this means for our customers is that even in times of crisis, they can rest assured that our supply chain is resilient enough to meet any demand,” concluded Uretsky. “And as we move forward, we will continue to push for localization and resiliency to help our partners create technical, sustainable and high quality products that benefit all ALLIED’s partners, the planet and local and regional communities.”

Scott Kaier
Formidable Media
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