In 2019, Farage secured a contract to be the official apparel designer for the Australian Defence Force (ADF).
The successful tender was the culmination of a growing corporate apparel division, which included a 15-year partnership with the Sydney Swans. Today, these contracts comprise 50% of overall turnover against the brand's ready-to-wear sales via in-store and online.
Following the ADF appointment, Farage initiated plans to increase local manufacturing capabilities in Surry Hills, Sydney, just as the COVID-19 pandemic emerged. Today, these capabilities are double the original size.
Joe Farage, who co-founded the business with his wife Katy, told Ragtrader that COVID-related supply chain challenges and growth in corporate contracts were key reasons for growth.
“During COVID, with supply chain issues being so real, we shifted some of the production that was forecasted for offshore and brought it onshore to minimise risk and lead times,” Farage says.
“Having said that; being around for 25 years, we have a number of corporate customers. And when I say corporate customers, they’re customers that we may fit out their whole team, create collections - wardrobe collections. Essentially it's uniforms.
“A lot of those people are saying - and we've seen this - that they want to ensure that a certain quota of any of their production is made onshore.”
Amid the development of expanded local manufacturing operations, Farage relocated its office and showroom out of its 25-year-old Surry Hills factory. The brand opened a five-level flagship in Darlinghurst, Sydney this year, bringing across its creative design team, some of the marketing team and the office team to free up space at the factory.
The company's overall workforce now includes a dozen in its upstairs office, “a few” in retail, and around 20 in its Surry Hills factory.
Farage admits that the entire process was a massive undertaking for the team.
“But I'll tell you, when the supply chain issues became really real, and you couldn't get things, we were one of the fortunate brands because we had onshore manufacturing. And then there was a surge - we were getting asked by other brands, we were getting asked by everybody to produce, but there's only so much capacity that we can commit to and it's reserved for Farage production and Farage clients.”
Farage says without government support, maintaining a skilled onshore manufacturing workforce will be difficult.
“There's not a lot of people that want to work in a factory - certainly not in Sydney and Melbourne,” Farage says. “What we need is people being trained in certain courses and apprenticeships and a bit more of a focus on onshore manufacturing - especially in the textile, clothing and footwear industries.
“If we want to continue focusing on onshore manufacturing and meeting the growth, there needs to be a little bit more than just what brands can do.”
The more immediate challenge for Farage is an aging base of highly skilled workers. Farage says if he was to double the 25-year-old Surry Hills factory again, he would struggle because “they’re all near retirement.”
“I'm hoping to find people that are a little bit younger and may have a decade in them, but unless there's some sort of initiative by government, I think that's a real challenge. So I'm conscious of that.
“And whilst I'm the biggest advocate for Australian-made since 1998, we invested in our own manufacturing facility to ensure that we had onshore manufacturing. We see challenges in the future unless we get some sort of government initiative within that space.”
Despite the growth in local manufacturing, Farage continues to offshore some of its production on the basis of quality. This includes its men’s suits as overseas manufacturers have "hundreds of years of heritage and craftsmanship", as well as quality machinery and a skilled workforce.
Farage says all its designs are created in Australia, and a “large part” of its production is in Australia, with much of its overseas manufacturing done in its main factory in Portugal or in Italy.
“For Farage, we don't do ‘made in China’ - we make in Europe or we make in Australia, and our accessories - like our ties and our shoes - they're made in Italy. We leave that to the best in the business.
“Everything else we can do ourselves.”
Farage's onshore production includes around 75% of the women’s tailoring, as well as all men’s and women’s shirts.
According to Farage, the greatest benefit of having local production is speed-to-market. While the brand ships fabric from Europe to Australia, its lead times are between three to four months. It also allows Farage to do small runs to test the market.
“If necessary - for example, we're out of a core item like a white shirt - we can turn that around in two weeks and get enough into store to get us out of trouble,” Farage says. “That flexibility and speed to market is the biggest asset of having onshore production.”