Buying fibre, yarn and fabric
Three buying processes, one for fibre, one for yarn and one for greige fabric, each on a page of its own, with the units and the maths beside them.
Buying fibre, yarn and fabric, step by step
This is the technical guide, written for somebody who already buys. It carries three separate processes, one for fibre, one for yarn and one for greige fabric, because they are bought differently and the mistakes in each are different. Around them sit the things every raw material buyer has to be able to do without looking up: read a count in any of the systems, convert a price between units, read a fabric specification, and turn a container rate into a cost per kilo. If you buy finished product rather than raw material, the garment and home textile guides are the ones you want.
Which of these do you buy?
Buying finished product rather than raw material? Clothes made to order follow the garment guide, fourteen steps from design to delivered, and bed linen, towels, quilts and curtains follow the home textile guide, sixteen steps.
Buying fibre
Your contract is priced on lint (spinners and traders)
Buying yarn
You place yarn with a mill, or you pay for the yarn inside your cloth (weavers, knitters, brands)
Buying fabric
You buy cloth and have it sewn somewhere else (brands, garment makers, home textile buyers)
Polyester and the regenerated fibres
The spec words, the price sources and the live prices for polyester staple and the viscose familyThe units, the maths and the making
Everything a quotation can be denominated in, the arithmetic for moving between units, and how yarn and polyester are actually made. None of it changes when the market does.
- Reference The units and the maths Everything a quotation can be denominated in, and the arithmetic for moving between them
- Reference How yarn and polyester are made How the goods are actually made, because the route decides the price
- Reference When to buy The one seasonal pattern that is real, and the calendar, kept apart
Every section of this guide
Buying fibre, twelve steps
- Write the fibre spec from your count programme
- Decide which origins you can buy from
- Read the market before you ask
- Ask two to four merchants
- Put the offers on one basis
- Negotiate
- Sign the contract and open the letter of credit
- Collect the shipping and classing documents
- Clear customs
- Weigh, test moisture, run the fibre tests
- Claim inside the limit, or accept and settle
- Record what the lot did in the mill
Buying yarn, thirteen steps
- Write the yarn spec
- Choose origins and terms
- Read the market
- Send the request to three to five mills
- Get quotes, a sample and a test report; run a trial
- Put the quotes on one basis
- Negotiate
- Purchase order with every spec line on it
- Pre-shipment inspection, if you want one
- Collect the documents
- Clear customs
- Check the delivery against the contract
- Pay the balance; record the mill’s performance
Buying fabric, thirteen steps
- Write the cloth spec
- Decide where to ask
- Read the market
- Ask three to five mills
- Get quotes, hangers, lab dips and a bulk sample
- Put the quotes on one basis
- Negotiate
- Purchase order with the sealed sample attached
- Production, with in-line and final inspection
- Collect the documents
- Clear customs
- Check metres, width, weight and shade; cut a trial
- Record the mill’s performance for next season
The units and the maths
How yarn and polyester are made
Common questions
Which count system will a mill quote me in?
Whichever one its market uses, which is why the same yarn arrives described three different ways. Ne is usual for cotton in most export markets, Nm for worsted and blends, denier and decitex for filament. Convert before you compare, never after, and the count converter on the calculators page does it for you.
Should I buy greige fabric or finished fabric?
Greige if you control the dyeing and the finish, or want to, because it separates the cloth decision from the colour decision and gives you the shorter lead time on repeats. Finished if you do not have a dye house relationship and do not want one. The two are quoted on different bases and are not directly comparable.
Why do two quotes for the same yarn look so different?
Usually because they are not the same quote. Different Incoterm, different unit, different bag weight, different payment terms, different origin, or one includes a certification the other does not. Put both on one basis before you draw any conclusion. Every quote we pass on comes back against one written specification for exactly this reason.
Do I need certified cotton, and which certification?
You need whatever your own customer will audit you against, and nothing more. Certifications are not interchangeable, they cost money at every step of the chain, and a mill that holds one does not automatically hold another. Decide it before you brief, because adding it afterwards means a new quote at a different price.