One of the first manufacturer mentees of the HFDA started a collaboration with an Italian company

A participant of the Hungarian Fashion & Design Agency’s (HFDA) first manufacturers’ mentoring programme, ROSE Kft., has started a collaboration with an Italian company, under which, for the first time in its 30-year history, the Hungarian company carries out contract manufacturing. ROSE has already manufactured hundreds of pieces for its partner and is actively seeking further potential collaborating dressmaker shops. The HFDA has supported the creation of the partnership by promoting professional connections.

Having assessed the business potential of the domestic light industry that stems from the strong cultural, economic, and social embeddedness of the branch, the Hungarian Fashion & Design Agency frequently organises a mentoring programme that aims to promote and sustain Hungarian manufacturers’ professional and business successes in the domestic and international market. The Agency organised its mentoring programme for domestic manufacturers in October 2020 for the first time, with the Hungarian Export Promotion Agency (HEPA) as its main professional partner.

The Manufacturers Mentoring Programme 3.0 is now underway, but the HFDA does not let go of the hands of previous participants either. The Agency keeps in contact with its former mentees so it can efficiently channel arriving international possibilities to Hungarian market players. As a result of its extended professional network, from time to time, foreign large companies seek to work specifically with Hungarian manufacturers. In these cases, the Agency helps to create the contact and might even contribute to finding the best domestic partner and laying the foundations of the collaboration by organising factory visits or providing professional support.

The HFDA maintains an ongoing professional relationship with the first manufacturers’ mentoring programme's follow-up mentee, ROSE Kft. The Kecskemét-based clothing industry company with a decades-long past mainly produces workwear and uniforms, and so far it has only manufactured and sold its own workwear products. The company is convinced that comfortable, wearable, and lovable garments depend on the right choice of material since this is what mainly determines the subjective feeling of comfort. The partnership with the Italian firm strengthens the company’s market position and promotes its further growth. Dóra Bogdanovics, managing director of ROSE Kft., sees many more opportunities in the professional partnership to develop their own facility since they have already multiplied their capacity, the number of their dressmakers. The most exciting question for her is whether they can establish contract manufacturing in the long term besides the production and sales of workwear while maintaining their strict professional principles and vision of quality work.

The Agency trusts that further similar promising partnerships can be formed in the future so it constantly strives to promote professional partnerships with manufacturers like the above and, following the inquiries received, to facilitate effective, mutually beneficial, even cross-border partnerships in the clothing and design sector.