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LeVI'S -Levi Strauss & Companybr /
Levi Strauss:
He was born 1829 in Germany (Buttenheim), comes from a Jewish family
1847 he immigrated to New York, where he turned into an American businessman
He established a Commercial company and sold cloths from denim material
Developed a serviceable robust material from the denim cotton for Gold-diggers
In 1890 he founds the Levi Strauss & Company
12 years later he unexpectedly died and left the company his four nephews
-> one of the very first global players
The Product:
- the first pants were still brown and hold from suspenders
- later he switched to denim, a cotton material coloured with Indigo blue
- LeVI'S turned into a symbol for the founder-spirit, the West and America
- It embodies a life-feeling
- But now the brand has lost their reputation
The Company:
· In the late eighties the management of LeVI'S denied, approximately 200 new Brands like Calvin Klein & Gap originated and LeVI'S became boring mostly in the USA and the jeans stores were closed
· Until today the company is one of the biggest jeans-manufacturers of the world and one of the popular brands
· 11 000 employees guarantee the production which is sold in more than 100 countries all over the world
· Workers got 15 $ hourly, health insurance paid from the Company for the whole family
· Also the brands Dockers and Silvertab belong to LeVI'S
· their annual turnover amounts to 4,2 billion $
· However, they have a mountain of debts of 2,1 billion $
· Levi Strauss is now managed from a former Pepsi-Manager
The impact of Globalization:
The production in Europe was transferred into the low-wage-region south-east-Asia
In September 2003 1980 employees became release in North America, from it 1180 in Canada, 800 in San Antonio (Texas)= the last Levi Strauss Company in the USA!
On the basis of high production, no jeans are sewing in the USA
The European production comes from a factory in Poland
All products are now produced in countries where the expenses are the lowest. The originated products can be then sold in the parts of the world, in which the prices and the profit are the highest
The wages in South- and East Asia amounts only 32 Cent!! -underpaid jobs
Employees work longer for lower wages in worse conditions and in insecurity (Sweatshops)
The Company take advantages of the bad social circumstances in low-wage-regions.
Furthermore it costs jobs in the USA (from the 800 women employees in Texas were 80% Hispanic poor immigrants) -growing unemployment
The Jeans makes a World-trip
The Jeans hikes ca. 65 000 km during her manufacturing:
- Concept & Design originates in the USA and Belgian -near the customer
- The cotton comes from India
- In Turkey, the cotton is spun to the yarn
- The yarn is coloured in Taiwan with Indigo from Germany
- In Poland the yarn is woven to the Material
- the material is sewn in Honduras and receives blanks
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