Friends, today I received a great email response from Rachel at Comfort Works, the slipcover company that I discussed last week.   I appreciated the amount of detail that they provided, and though they did not ask me to share this response, I thought it was only fair to share their side of the story.

Hi Jane, Happy Easter!

Sorry we couldn’t get back to you earlier. It’s actually a long Easter weekend in Australia (back to work tomorrow!). Your email actually showed up blank – not sure why, but we received a notification about an interesting post that may need my attention.

I’ll try my best to address your concern as I understand that being an ethical purchaser one would like to make educated decision based on all available information.

I guess now that you mentioned it, it does sound like we’re withholding information from our customer eg. Comfort Works are Australian-based and owned online workroom.

So why don’t we have a mention that our products are “Made in China”? It is solely because we honestly feel where our product is actually being sewn/made should not be a compromise to our standard of craftsmanship.

In the beginning, all our covers were indeed made in Australia out of our little garage in West of Melbourne. However as demand grew, we moved out of our home studio to work with a local workshop- and as the need for a higher quality and more affordable cover arise, we realised that we could no longer sustain the business as a fairy tale husband and wife operation by being strictly in Australia.

We then decided to get out of our comfort zone and started to look at options which then led us to set up a workshop located in Hong Kong in 2011. We easily spent at least a whole year flying back and forth recruiting, finding location, training, and managing the operation/workshop (my partner is still flying in and out). The workshop is absolutely 100% owned by me and my husband, in fact, every single team member and seamstress are hand picked and interviewed to make sure we share the same passion of wanting to make sure every seam and every pleat is perfect. We are a small team of ten and would like to keep our operations small, growing slowly but surely, to ensure best practices. This is also why we feel that while the product is technically made in China, the culture and promise of highest possible products are indeed Australian.

I hope I don’t bore you with what may sounds like a PR spin, but if anything, we take your suggestion and concern very seriously. In fact we will be incorporating these information as to where our products are made and sent from in the upcoming new website (site was tested last weekend hence was down for 24 hours). I will also post an article on our blog as of tomorrow on this topic of China-made product. Is it okay to link it back on to your original post?.

Lastly, I’m very glad that you’re happy with the leather slipcover you received. Every single positive feedback puts a smile on everyone faces in both Melbourne and China office (yes we share such emails even with the team in the workroom).

-Rachel

Update:  On  4/1/2013 I received a great and detailed email response from the owner of the company explaining that as they grew they did have to move the manufacturing to Hong Kong, but they established their own workshop, manage it, and are going to update their website to provide more clarity. 

Yesterday I shared our new leather couch cover from Comfort Works, the “Australian” company known across the blogosphere for custom IKEA slipcovers.  What I didn’t get into was the disappointment I felt when the cover arrived and I saw it was Made in China, not Australia.

I read the Comfort Works “About” page, the FAQs, and even their Facebook profile in an attempt to learn about their company before purchasing from them, and I (mistakenly) believed the products were made in Australia.

The Comfort Works Facebook page states “We are an Australian-based and owned online workroom designed to produce custom made IKEA Sofa Covers, Curtains, Pillow and Cushion Slipcovers.”

Australian-based and owned.  That seems to be the key, as now I realize they’re not saying anything about manufacturing, just business headquarters.

In the “About” section of the Comfort Works website, I read “by luck, we discovered family of talented seamstresses with superpowers to turn sheets of fabric into a wonderful pieces of cover. This was the beginning. Every piece of soft-furnishing is carefully hand cut and made with expert attention to detail, within our very own small workshop – that’s right, no outsourcing, nor any use of third party suppliers.”

When I read that, I naively assumed that meant they found seamstresses in, and had their own workshop in, Australia.

So what do I want?

Though I am far from perfect when it comes to ethical shopping, I try to make educated decisions and avoid purchases of unethically produced or Made in China products as much as possible, especially when there are alternatives available.

When I do end up purchasing something Made in China, I like to know I am doing so ahead of time.

I would have liked the Comfort Works website to be more transparent about the manufacturing of their goods, letting consumers know that their workroom and seamstresses are located in China, but that (hopefully) they have taken steps x, y, z to ensure ethical labor practices are followed.

Because Ryan loves his bachelor-days sofa, I still would have ordered the leather cover for him, because he really wanted it.  I just would have appreciated being a more well-informed consumer. The omission of information leads me to believe they have something to hide. 

My email to Comfort Works, sharing my happiness with the product but disappointment in the Made in China aspect, and asking for more information about their production line / factory, has not been answered yet.