Ordering
What minimum order quantity means for a suit order
A minimum order quantity, or MOQ, is the smallest order a supplier will accept. For a private label suit at Hajjo Apparel it is 200 pieces a design, made in your own label. Below that, the Group offers two other routes: one full series from the Bolmandi collection for shops, and cloth from two metres at Nile Wool for tailors.
What is a minimum order quantity?
A minimum order quantity is a supplier’s floor: the fewest pieces, metres or units it will make or sell in one order. In tailoring it is usually set per design, because most of the work of starting a garment is done once per design, however many pieces follow.
The minimum is not only a number. It tells you what kind of customer a supplier is built for, and whether your order will be worth its full attention.
Why do suit factories set minimums?
Every new design costs the factory the same fixed work before the first piece is sold: the pattern is made or checked and graded across the sizes, a sample is made and approved, the cloth and trims are bought, the cutting is planned, and the sewing line is set up for the new style. Spread over many pieces, that work costs little per garment. Spread over a few, it can cost more than the making itself.
Tailoring adds its own reasons. A jacket passes through many separate operations, and a line only reaches its rhythm, and its consistency, after the first pieces of a run. Cloth is bought by the roll, and a run cut from rolls checked for shade holds its colour better than a patchwork of short lengths.
How is the minimum counted at Hajjo Apparel?
At Hajjo Apparel the minimum is 200 pieces a design, and it applies across the range: suits, blazers, coats, formal trousers, linen trousers, tuxedos, overshirts and matching sets of overshirt and trouser. Kids suits for ages six to fourteen follow the same rules.
Within the 200, the quantities per size are yours to set; they are one of the things the tech pack asks for, with measurements, size chart, cloth, construction, labels and a delivery date. If you plan one design in more than one colour or cloth, say so in your inquiry and ask how it will be counted.
What the minimum buys you is a garment made entirely to your specification: your pattern or one made with you, your cloth, your choice of fused, half canvas or full canvas construction, your buttons and details, and your own label. A sample follows within three weeks, and production takes one to three months. The whole sequence is set out in From tech pack to delivery: how a private label suit order runs.
What if you need fewer than 200 pieces?
If you want your own label, 200 pieces a design is the route. If what you need is good suits to sell, or good cloth to make up yourself, the Group has two smaller routes, each with its own minimum.
Bolmandi: one full series, for shops
Bolmandi is the Group’s wholesale menswear brand. It sells finished suits, tuxedos, coats, jackets, shirts, shoes and casual wear, with kids suits for ages six to fourteen, to shops, small brands, tailoring houses and online sellers.
The minimum order is one full series: one piece in every size of a design. The more series you buy, the better the price. Single pieces are not sold. New collections and pieces are developed all year and released in monthly drops, and businesses can also place their own custom orders, outside the Bolmandi stock.
Bolmandi does not make in your label. Every piece carries the Bolmandi label and tag and comes with its own suit bag and packaging. Garments in your own label are made only by the factory, from 200 pieces a design.
Nile Wool: two metres of cloth, for tailors
Nile Wool brings Italian cloth into Egypt and cuts it by the metre. The smallest cut is two metres. Some cloth is held in Cairo and the rest comes to order, so a tailor can buy one length for one client rather than a mill minimum.
The mills include Drago, for which Nile Wool is the exclusive distributor in Africa; Stylbiella, Drapers and Lanitex, for which it is the exclusive agent; and Vitale Barberis Canonico, Zegna, Albini, Lanificio Cerruti, Scabal, Piacenza and Huddersfield Fine Worsteds, alongside Turkish, Indian and Chinese mills. New and past collections from every mill are available on request. It is the same cloth the Group’s factory and shops cut.
Which route fits your order?
| If you are | And you want | The route | The minimum | The label |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A brand, retailer or purchasing office | Your own design, made to your specification | Hajjo Apparel | 200 pieces a design | Your own |
| A shop, small brand or tailoring house | Finished suits and tailoring to sell | Bolmandi | One full series per design | Bolmandi |
| A tailor, small brand or cloth shop | Cloth to cut and make up | Nile Wool | Two metres | None: it is cloth |
How do you plan an order around a minimum?
A few habits make a minimum easier to meet without holding stock you cannot sell.
- Fewer designs, deeper. Two designs at 200 pieces each usually serve a range better than eight designs too thin to reach the minimum.
- Core colours first. Put the colours your customers buy every season in your own label, and test seasonal colours in smaller quantities.
- Set the size spread from sales. Your own sales history is the best guide to the quantities per size in your tech pack.
- Match construction to price. The construction changes the price of every piece in the order; Fused, half canvas or full canvas explains what each one gives the wearer.
- Start with a series. A shop not ready for 200 pieces can sell Bolmandi by the series first, and move to its own label when the numbers are there.
For the other questions to ask a factory before you order, see How to choose a suit manufacturer in Egypt.
Hajjo Apparel and Manufacturing
Talk to us about your quantities
Tell us the garments, the quantities per design and the delivery date you have in mind through the inquiry form on the Hajjo Apparel page, or write to [email protected]. The same address reaches Bolmandi and Nile Wool.