Offices are in London and Berlin and, in response to customer demand across the pond, the company has expanded into the US.

Most of the garments are made from a factory in Turkey, where there are 300 machinists working on garments for stock as well as the bespoke orders. Only the sweatshirts are made in the Far East due to the labour intensive work required on them.

Mariusz Stochaj, head of products at Continental explains the decision to manufacture from Turkey: “Turkey is the fourth largest manufacturer of cotton clothing worldwide. It is also very near [to the UK] and produces its own cotton fibres. The majority of the cotton CCC uses is from the Aegean area of Turkey, so the country has a good local source of high quality fibre to start with.

“The Western area of Turkey is very modern and civilised so the standard of manufacturing is high. Labour costs are higher than in the Far East but the quality of product is also higher and because of the quality of the workforce and level of training, so is efficiency. Transport costs aren’t that much cheaper, but the difference is in time of transit.” Staff turnaround is also low, which cuts back on the need to re-train as well as helping to maintain consistency of the products, he adds.

All the bamboo and organic garments are made in Turkey, explains Stochaj, but the bamboo is imported and then processed in Turkey.

“It’s taken a long time to develop the bamboo process (where bamboo is pulped then fibres extracted and spun into yarn),” he says. “The process started off well, but then when we were ready to go into bulk production we stumbled into some problems and had to re-assess. In the end we changed the product slightly, which resolved a lot of the problems with its stability.”

For the extra fine jerseys cotton is imported from Egypt, as this Egyptian cotton has extra long fibres, which give the ability to produce very fine yarns, explains Sochaj. “To produce a fine yarn you have to have really long fibres. The shorter the fibre the rougher and more uneven it becomes. You have to comb the fibres to control this and get rid of the short ones.”

In the Continental range 240g is the heaviest garment and 90g the lightest, although in terms of price per metre, the lightest one is the more expensive. “We produce clothes that are retail quality,” adds Stochaj. “We have to compete with high street quality because so much of it ends up there. A Tshirt could sell in a multiple retailer for £10- 15, but that same T-shirt with an elaborate design or as a limited edition could sell for £120 in Harvey Nichols.”

Back in London HQ there are 20 staff in the two 10,000 sq ft warehouses, plus an office-based team that deals with sales and the company’s made to order service. The in-house distribution is also dealt with from here (although CCC does also distribute through BTC Activewear). One warehouse holds the sweatshirts and childrenswear, (there’s normally around 300,000 sweatshirts in stock) and the other holds the adult lines (about 600,000 Tshirts).

Deliveries from the Turkish factory are made weekly. Around 80-90,000 pieces per week are received here by road, while about 20-50,000 bespoke pieces are flown in each week (this cuts lead times by 10 days).Garments are picked from the warhouses for individual orders and also to supply the European distributors with bulk orders.

About half of Continental’s market is fashion retail, with garments being used either for a designer’s brand or for a retailer’s own brand. Smaller retailers buy from a wholesaler whereas the larger ones buy direct from Continental.

Where the company comes into its own is in its ability to respond quickly to sudden new trends, says Stochaj. “If a celebrity is photographed wearing an original vintage T-shirt from the 70s, suddenly everybody wants that, so then there’s a race as to who can get it to the high street first – you can make a killing when you are there in an instant – that’s the fast fashion concept.

“That’s where we come in because we have got the stock. A store buyer will come to us one day and we get the stock to the store in three days, it can be that quick.”

The company is also very strong in certain sectors of merchandising (for companies like Ferrari) where there’s a demand for products that reflect the high street – and these are sold for money, not given away, he adds. “The important thing is that we can be high quality but we can also address the need to be current and have younger market appeal.”

The promotional market makes up 10-15% of Continental’s market, in premium products where the customer wants the product to have a certain perceived value, says Stochaj. “Our T-shirts are the ones that you wear to dress up, not down.”

According to Stochaj, the printwear market is becoming more and more sophisticated. “People understand the differences between products and understand that a T-shirt is not just a commodity, it’s there to be worn, not just traded. By doing that they are discovering that they can gain advantage over the competition by providing a better selection of products to customers. This is reflected in the adventurous new products being introduced by all the brands,” he says.

“Everybody is realising that the days of T-shirts being a throwaway item are over because it’s just pointless. It’s like having a poster and never sticking it anywhere.”

This trend is also being driven by the needs of the garment decorators, he adds. “The printers are looking for an edge over their competitors – they can’t all go out and buy the same basic product.”

In the immediate future Stochaj predicts the trend will be for interesting, but not “weird” T-shirts. It’s about keeping products simple but making each one individual, he says.

Lightweight jerseys, deeper necklines, longer hems, washed and distressed styles will also be big news, he suggests. The company recently launched its burnout Tshirt, which Stochaj says will give fashion companies and merchandisers a real “edge”.

But it is unlikely any major changes to the stock will occur in the immediate future, he says. “We have turned our range upside down in the last two years so now we want to let it settle and let people get to know it and maximise the potential of the products.We might add one or two items next year, but we won’t be dropping anything because everything seems to be working so well.”

Indeed, changing ranges is very difficult in the printwear industry, says Stochaj, and in some cases can limit brand development. “We learnt the difficulties the hard way a few years ago when we dropped 70% of our stock/lines and lost a lot of business because as we phased things out we got to a stage where we were out of stock and people had to go elsewhere to get what they needed. It was a huge gamble but after 10 years we knew we had to change some of our lines – and it paid off.”

However, the company is not so much at the mercy of one of the biggest pressures in the industry – price. “We are not in this picture,” says Stochaj. “The cotton that would be used at this end of the scale is the 80% we discard during our combing process. Of course there is a price point pressure on us, but we don’t compete head on with the rest of the market in those terms.”

But like all companies, Continental is under pressure when it comes to stock holding and stock control and the vulnerabilities this brings. Most companies find that it is virtually impossible to have 100% of stock available, he says, so you aim for between 95-98% on styles you know you are going to sell.

“But this means you can quite easily get wiped out of stock when something takes off and you are just out of stock until the trend wears off. You can’t pre-empt whether something’s going to take off, but it can happen overnight. It’s a huge task to stay on top of that.” Continental manages this by being able to replenish stock within three weeks, rather than in four months, he adds. “You also need to trust your intuition and understand why something is selling and why it’s not.”

Aside from its stock collection of around 80 garments, Continentalalso offers a bespoke manufacturing service. However, this is not done online, says Stochaj, as he believes a true bespoke service can only be offered face-to-face.

“Nobody in the fashion industry would dream of designing a piece of clothing on a computer,” he explains. At Continental the starting point is the handbook, which shows all the different variations a customer can work with: the fabrics and the colours. “You have to advise and guide customers, offering them a quick, efficient and hassle free service. I believe that you can only do that on a one to one basis.”

The handbook also includes fabric feelers to help customers, he explains: “When a bespoke customer comes to you they know what they want but they can’t find it. They don’t need to see millions of samples of different products – they need to see things that will help them. Saying: ‘I can make any fabric you like’ isn’t helpful because the customer doesn’t know the technological specifications of a fabric. So we have fabric feelers. We also have fabric on the floor ready to go into instant production.”

With speedy service, an ability to respond to the “fast fashion” concept and keep ahead of new trends Continental looks set to continue its growth and keep the industry on its toes.

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