International Hospitality Group

The buyer is a Europe/Middle-East hospitality group operating 11 properties across France, Spain, Italy, UAE and Saudi Arabia. They had been sourcing chef aprons from a Portuguese supplier whose quality was steady but whose unit cost had risen 24% over two years.

Brief: standardize three apron SKUs (head chef, sous chef, line cook) across all 11 properties, each carrying the group's crest embroidered in three colors plus a station number on the hem so the laundry could sort them. Aprons had to survive 200+ industrial wash cycles without crest distortion or fabric pilling.

We proofed 6 fabric weights, settling on a 240 GSM 65/35 cotton-poly twill with bar-tacked stress points and reinforced D-ring neck closure. The first sample shipped 9 days from brief acceptance. Bulk production ran on 2 dedicated lines for 23 days; we packed direct-to-property (11 distinct destinations) with consolidated DDP shipping arranged through our forwarder in Ningbo.

Over the first 12 months the group reported zero quality claims, 98% on-time arrival to property, and a 19% unit cost reduction versus their prior supplier. The contract renews annually; we are now their default chef-apron supplier for new property openings.