For UK fashion brands, retailers, and product businesses considering Asia for their next clothing or apparel run.
Right, let's cut through the noise. If you're a UK clothing brand, retailer, or product business thinking about sourcing garments from Asia, you've probably already spent hours on Google, talked to a few factories on Alibaba, and come away more confused than when you started. The problem isn't lack of information — it's too much of it, most of it either out of date or written for the US market.
This guide is specifically for UK businesses. We'll cover China and Vietnam, explain where each makes sense for your product, walk through the real costs and compliance requirements you'll face at UK customs, and show you how to set up a reliable supply chain without flying blind.
At Epic Sourcing, we've spent years helping UK brands source clothing and apparel from Asia — from independent streetwear labels to established retailers managing multiple SKUs. Here's what actually matters.
Clothing and apparel sourcing is the process of finding, vetting, and ordering garments or textile products from overseas manufacturers. For UK businesses, this typically means working with factories in China, Vietnam, Bangladesh, or other manufacturing hubs to produce items that will be sold under your brand label.
UK manufacturing costs — wages, overheads, minimum order requirements — make domestic production prohibitive for most small to mid-size clothing brands. A UK cut-and-sew operation might quote you £18–£30 per unit for a mid-complexity garment. The same piece from a well-vetted Chinese factory: £4–£9. From Vietnam: £5–£11. The margin difference is the difference between a viable brand and a vanity project.
This isn't about cutting corners. Some of the world's best-quality clothing manufacturers operate in China and Vietnam — the same factories that supply European luxury brands and major UK high street retailers. The key is knowing which factories to approach, what to look for in their capabilities, and how to protect your quality standards and IP throughout the production process. That's where most UK businesses get it wrong — they choose a factory on price alone and wonder why their samples look nothing like what they asked for.
UK-China trade was valued at approximately £87 billion in 2024, with imports running at around £71 billion for the year to March 2025. Clothing and textiles represent a significant slice of that. UK-Vietnam trade hit approximately £9.6 billion in 2024, and apparel is one of the primary drivers. Understanding which market suits your product type is step one.
The honest answer is: it depends on your product type, order volume, and development stage. China and Vietnam have distinct strengths, and the best decision for a technical performance jacket might be the wrong decision for a basic cotton t-shirt.
China remains the world's largest clothing manufacturer and has infrastructure no other country can match. If you need complex construction — multi-layer technical outerwear, structured tailoring, intricate embroidery, or intricate prints — China is still the go-to. The supply chain ecosystem is mature: fabric mills, trim suppliers, embellishment specialists, and export agents are all within short trucking distances of major production hubs like Guangzhou, Zhejiang, and Fujian.
That said, China's cost advantage has narrowed over the past decade. Wages in major manufacturing cities have risen substantially, and some product categories are now equally or better priced from Vietnam. Ongoing geopolitical pressures have also pushed some brands to reduce single-country dependency — what the industry calls "China-Plus-One" diversification.
Vietnam has emerged as a genuine alternative for UK clothing brands, particularly for mid-complexity garments: activewear, basics, denim, casualwear, and swimwear. The country has well-established factories — many supplying the same global brands as China — and its workforce has developed strong technical capabilities over two decades of investment. Ho Chi Minh City (south) and Hanoi (north) are the two main production clusters.
Crucially for UK businesses, the UK-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (UKVFTA) provides significant duty relief on qualifying garments. This alone can shift the landed cost calculation meaningfully in Vietnam's favour, especially for orders where standard duty rates would run at 12%.
| Factor | China | Vietnam |
|---|---|---|
| Typical unit cost (basic tee) | £3.50 – £7.00 | £4.50 – £9.00 |
| Typical MOQ (per style/colour) | 300–500 pcs | 300–600 pcs |
| Sea freight to UK (days) | 25–35 days | 28–38 days |
| Sample lead time | 2–4 weeks | 3–5 weeks |
| Production lead time | 45–75 days | 50–80 days |
| UK import duty (standard) | 12% (most garments) | 0–6.5% (with UKVFTA) |
| Product complexity strength | High complexity, technical | Mid complexity, basics, active |
| UKVFTA duty relief | ❌ No | ✅ Yes (qualifying goods) |
| Main UK entry port | Felixstowe, Southampton | Felixstowe, Southampton |
The UK-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (UKVFTA) came into effect on 1 January 2021 and has been eliminating tariffs on Vietnamese goods progressively ever since. For clothing and apparel, the standard UK import duty rate is 12% for most woven garments (HS Chapter 62) and can reach 12–16% for knitted items (HS Chapter 61). Under UKVFTA, qualifying Vietnamese goods can attract 0% or significantly reduced rates — a material saving for any business importing at scale.
To qualify for UKVFTA preferential rates, your goods must meet the rules of origin requirements. For clothing, this typically means double transformation: the fabric must be woven or knitted in Vietnam (or the UK), then cut and sewn in Vietnam. Goods made with Chinese fabric that is simply cut and sewn in Vietnam do not generally qualify — an important distinction that catches some importers out. Your Vietnamese supplier should be able to provide a EUR.1 movement certificate or an origin declaration on their commercial invoice to claim the preference.
If you're importing £50,000 worth of garments from China, you'd typically pay £6,000 in import duty at 12%. The same order from a qualifying Vietnamese supplier might attract 0–3% under UKVFTA — saving you £4,500–£6,000 on that single shipment. Multiply that across two or three seasons and you're talking about a meaningful annual saving that can fund additional product development, sampling, or marketing.
| Import Value | Duty from China (12%) | Duty from Vietnam UKVFTA (0–3%) | Potential Saving |
|---|---|---|---|
| £10,000 | £1,200 | £0 – £300 | £900 – £1,200 |
| £25,000 | £3,000 | £0 – £750 | £2,250 – £3,000 |
| £50,000 | £6,000 | £0 – £1,500 | £4,500 – £6,000 |
| £100,000 | £12,000 | £0 – £3,000 | £9,000 – £12,000 |
Always ask your Vietnamese supplier which fabrics they source and from where. UKVFTA origin benefits only apply when the double-transformation rules are met. A supplier using predominantly Chinese-origin fabric may not produce qualifying goods. Request origin declarations or EUR.1 certificates for every shipment where you claim preferential rates. Your UK customs agent or freight forwarder can verify this before shipment.
The UK has its own compliance framework for clothing and textiles that differs from EU rules post-Brexit. If you're sourcing from Asia and selling into the UK market, here's what you need to get right before your first order arrives at Felixstowe or Southampton.
The Textile Products (Labelling and Fibre Composition) Regulations 2012, as retained in UK law, require that textile products sold in the UK bear accurate fibre composition labels in English. Your manufacturer must provide correct fibre content data, and you as the importer are responsible for ensuring the label is accurate. Fibre content must be listed in descending order of weight. Penalties for mislabelling fall on the importer, not the factory.
Children's garments face additional regulatory scrutiny in the UK. UK REACH (the UK's retained version of EU REACH, enforced by the UK Health and Safety Executive) restricts certain substances in textile dyes and treatments — azo dyes, formaldehyde in finishes, and specific phthalates are regulated. If you're importing children's clothing, require your factory to provide test reports from a UKAS-accredited laboratory confirming compliance with relevant British Standards including EN 14682 (cords and drawstrings). Drawstrings on children's outerwear have specific length restrictions under UK law, and non-compliance can result in product recalls and significant fines.
Most mainstream clothing does not require UKCA marking. However, if your garments include incorporated electronics (heated jackets, LED-lit items), PPE elements (hi-vis), or are classified as personal protective equipment, UKCA becomes mandatory. PPE clothing must meet UK Regulation 2016/425 as retained in UK law and requires assessment by a UK Approved Body. PPE clothing sourced from Asia without proper UK approval cannot legally be sold in Great Britain.
You'll need a valid UK EORI number (Economic Operator Registration and Identification) to import goods commercially into Great Britain. If you don't have one, apply via HMRC — it's free and usually processed within 48 hours. All imports are declared through HMRC's Customs Declaration Service (CDS). Your freight forwarder or customs agent handles the declaration, but you need to provide correct commodity codes, accurate values, and country of origin documentation.
Some factories offer to put a lower value on commercial invoices to reduce the duty bill. This is customs fraud under UK law and can result in seizure of goods, back-payment of all duties plus interest, significant penalties, and potential criminal prosecution. The duty saving is never worth the risk. Always use accurate commercial values on all import documentation.
One of the most common questions UK clothing brands ask us is "how much does it actually cost?" The honest answer varies significantly based on garment complexity, fabrics specified, decorative elements, and order volume. Here are real-world ranges to work from.
| Garment Type | China Unit Cost | Vietnam Unit Cost | Min. Order | Production Lead Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Basic cotton T-shirt | £2.50–£5.00 | £3.00–£6.00 | 300–500 pcs | 45–60 days |
| Hoodie / sweatshirt | £6.00–£12.00 | £7.00–£14.00 | 300–500 pcs | 45–70 days |
| Activewear / leggings | £5.00–£10.00 | £5.50–£11.00 | 300–600 pcs | 50–70 days |
| Woven shirt / blouse | £5.00–£13.00 | £6.00–£14.00 | 300–500 pcs | 50–75 days |
| Outerwear / jacket | £18.00–£45.00 | £20.00–£50.00 | 200–300 pcs | 60–90 days |
| Denim jeans | £8.00–£18.00 | £9.00–£20.00 | 300–500 pcs | 55–80 days |
Unit cost from the factory is only part of the picture. Your landed cost includes: factory price + sea freight (approximately £1,500–£2,500 per 20ft container from China to Felixstowe in 2026) + import duty + VAT at 20% (reclaimable for VAT-registered businesses) + customs clearance fees + UK delivery. A garment at £4 ex-factory can easily land at £7–£8 per unit once all costs are included. Always model the full landed cost before comparing quotes from different countries.
Finding a manufacturer online is easy. Finding a reliable one that can deliver your spec, at your price point, on time, with consistent quality — that's a different challenge. Here's where most UK businesses go wrong and how to approach it properly.
Alibaba is a marketplace, not a vetting service. While many legitimate factories list there, so do trading companies, middlemen, and in some cases fraudulent operators. The factory with 500 five-star reviews may have earned those reviews supplying a very different product type than what you need. For clothing specifically, a factory with strong denim experience may be completely ill-equipped to produce your technical outerwear — but they'll accept the order and sub-contract it anyway.
When evaluating any clothing manufacturer, look for: verifiable export history to UK or European brands; a dedicated sampling team with experienced pattern cutters; clear fabric sourcing documentation; a quality management process with in-line and final QC; and honest information on actual MOQs and capacity. Factories quoting unrealistically low MOQs (under 100 pieces for a complex garment) are usually either quoting sample pricing that will balloon in production, or they're a trading company rather than a direct factory.
Canton Fair (held twice yearly in Guangzhou, China) and Vietnam Moda (Ho Chi Minh City) are the major sourcing events for clothing and textiles. Meeting factories in person — seeing their showroom, speaking to their sales team, understanding their actual scale — provides insight you cannot get from a website profile. If you can attend in person, it's worth the investment. If not, a trusted sourcing agent with established factory relationships can assess manufacturers on your behalf.
Epic Sourcing has established relationships with vetted clothing and apparel factories across China and Vietnam. Tell us what you need and we'll do the legwork — factory finding, sampling, QC, and delivery management.
Book a Free ConsultationAt Epic Sourcing, we work with UK clothing brands at every stage — from the business that has a design concept and needs to find their first factory, through to established retailers managing multiple ongoing supplier relationships. We have teams in both China and Vietnam and work exclusively with factories we've personally vetted over years of hands-on sourcing.
We offer three core service tiers depending on where you are in your brand journey:
£699
Best for brands starting out who want to get a clothing product to market quickly with their own branding applied to an existing manufacturer design.
£1,899
Best for brands developing original garment designs needing custom development from tech pack through to production-ready samples.
£3,299
Best for established brands needing full supply chain management — multiple SKUs, ongoing sourcing, and dedicated support.
We're based in London (71-75 Shelton Street, London WC2H 9JQ) with sourcing teams on the ground in China and Vietnam. When there's a production issue — a quality problem, a delayed shipment, a supplier that's gone quiet — we have people in-country who can physically visit the factory and resolve it. That's something no UK-only business can replicate.
For most clothing factories in China and Vietnam, the typical minimum order quantity (MOQ) for a single style and colour runs between 300 and 600 pieces. Some factories will go lower — particularly for repeat customers or simpler garments — but anything under 200 pieces for a complex garment should be treated with scepticism unless you are specifically working with a small-batch specialist. MOQs exist because factories need to run efficient production lines; too small an order makes the machine setups uneconomical. If your volumes are genuinely small (under 200 units), consider working with a sourcing agent who can aggregate small orders across multiple clients, or look at print-on-demand as a complementary model for testing designs before committing to bulk production.
First samples from a clothing factory in China typically take 2–4 weeks from the date your tech pack or reference sample is received. From Vietnam, expect 3–5 weeks for initial samples. This is followed by revision rounds — rarely does a first sample hit the brief exactly — which can add another 2–4 weeks per revision cycle. Total sampling time before you're happy to proceed to production is typically 6–14 weeks depending on complexity and how many revision rounds are needed. Always budget 10–12 weeks for the full sampling process when planning your launch timeline, and don't compress this stage — quality problems caught at sampling cost nothing to fix; quality problems discovered after a full production run are expensive and often irreparable.
A factory visit is not strictly required, but it provides substantial reassurance and often reveals things that photos and video calls cannot. At a minimum, we recommend commissioning a third-party factory audit report before your first production order. These audits (typically £300–£600) assess the factory's capacity, quality management systems, labour practices, and export track record. For ongoing relationships, factory visits during production — not just before or after — give you real visibility into how your order is being handled. Epic Sourcing can arrange factory audits in both China and Vietnam, and in-country site visits form part of our Private Label and Secret Label service packages.
Clothing is subject to UK Global Tariff rates — for most woven garments (HS Chapter 62), the standard rate is 12% of customs value, and for some knitted items (HS Chapter 61), it can reach 12–16%. From Vietnam, the UKVFTA provides preferential rates of 0–6.5% for goods meeting the rules of origin requirements (double transformation: fabric and garment both produced in Vietnam). VAT at 20% is payable on the customs value plus duty, but is reclaimable for VAT-registered UK businesses. You'll need a valid UK EORI number to import, and all declarations go through HMRC's Customs Declaration Service. Always use an experienced UK customs broker to handle your import declarations — errors can result in delays, penalties, and additional cost.
IP protection when manufacturing in China or Vietnam requires a multi-layered approach. First, register your UK trademark before sharing any designs with factories — this gives you legal standing if designs are copied. Second, use a robust non-disclosure agreement with every factory you approach, even at sampling stage. Third, limit disclosure — share only what the factory needs to produce, not your full brand strategy or future roadmap. Fourth, avoid sending identical design samples to multiple factories simultaneously. At Epic Sourcing, IP protection and NDA management are built into our Private Label and Secret Label packages, and we only work with factories with a clean track record on IP. In China specifically, registering your trademark locally with the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) provides additional protection that a UK trademark alone cannot.
Whether you're launching your first range or diversifying your supplier base from China to Vietnam, Epic Sourcing can take care of everything from factory finding to final delivery.
UK-based team. China and Vietnam sourcing offices. Fixed, transparent pricing.
Epic Sourcing UK — 71-75 Shelton Street, London WC2H 9JQ
