The Polish clothing and textile market is one of the most dynamic in Central and Eastern Europe.
According to the data cited in the report, in 2022 the fashion and innovation textile industry counted over 36,000 entities. In the same year, the turnover of the clothing market in Poland alone amounted to PLN 53.3 billion. It is worth noting that 78.3% is made up of revenue from the sale of clothing in stores (not online). According to experts' forecasts, the industry will achieve higher revenues from year to year. The largest segment of the clothing market in Poland is women's clothing, whose market value in 2023 is expected to amount to more than PLN 36 billion.
The study shows that both now and over the next three years, the biggest problem is adapting production to appropriate ecological standards due to legal requirements and customer preferences. The second challenge most frequently cited by entrepreneurs is the need to find local suppliers of materials in order to shorten supply chains.
One in three employers admits that it will be problematic to hire new employees in the sector (especially for professions: tailor, cutter, seamstress, clothing technologist, clothing designer) due to the deficit of these people on the labour market. Among the future challenges, aspects related to the introduction of digitalization were also mentioned. Almost 30% of employers said that in the next three years it will be necessary to implement and develop digital solutions that allow, for example, to measure clothes remotely and customize the product purchased before its production, which will be possible thanks to AR technology. The need for easy identification of Polish products or a change in the direction of the production of clothes – more expensive, but of much better quality – was also stressed.
Forecasts for the future
More than half (58%) of entrepreneurs plan to increase service prices in the next three years and 43% to introduce new services or products to market. This is the result of the growing popularity of product circularity and the development of the second circulation market. Currently, we are observing a growing interest in the slow-fashion trend, which consists in giving up low-quality clothing usually of Asian production. This means that the number of customers looking for alternatives to cheap and rapidly deteriorating clothing is gradually increasing. In addition, inflation and population impoverishment mean that more and more people are betting on durable clothing to limit spending. It is worth adding, however, that there is still a high demand for clothing produced according to the fast-fashion model, which attracts customers with a low price and the ability to quickly adapt to dynamically changing fashion trends. Convincing customers of the benefits of investing in more expensive clothing in the form of reducing the negative impact of the production process on the environment can also be a challenge for apparel manufacturers.
Source : PARP .