SUSTAINABILITY IN LUXURY FASHION SUPPLY CHAIN: THREAT OR OPPORTUNITY?

The sustainability factor becomes more and more important over last years, so that nowadays Luxury firms can no longer ignore this topic. For Luxury Fashion companies the Sustainable Supply Chain is one a major challenge, because they are not usually vertically integrated and the brand often outsources production and distribution of goods, while preserving product design phase. Brands usually act as focal-companies within their Suply Chains and are responsible for the alignment of the sustainability objectives and actions of their whole Supply Chain; they are liable not only for their actions, but also for all those actions of their suppliers and/or distributors. The possible strategies to set and manage a sustainable Supply Chain does not seem to be clearly defined in the literature, for this reason we explore the case of a Luxury Fashion company which has been outsourcing everything but the design phase. The case is represented by a mid-sized company which is moving towards vertical integration to increase the sustainability of its Supply Chain. Opportunity and threats of this choice are discussed, together with implications for theory and practice.