Quality & compliance
Quality Control and Social Compliance
We place orders only with factories holding current BSCI, WRAP or Sedex certification, and we inspect every order to AQL 2.5 at four stages of production. Audit certificates are available to review before you commit to an order, not after.
Addressing it directly
Why This Page Exists
Bangladesh’s garment industry carries a reputation problem that predates most of the factories now operating in it. We would rather raise it than have you wonder.
After the Rana Plaza collapse in 2013, two large inspection programmes — the Accord on Fire and Building Safety, backed largely by European brands, and the Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety, backed by North American ones — inspected several thousand export factories between them.
That is the industry-level answer, and it is genuinely better than it was. But the variance between individual factories remains wide, and a certificate is a snapshot, not a guarantee.
What the standards mean
Certifications Our Factories Hold
In plain language, because half the buyers who ask us about these are hearing the acronyms for the first time.
BSCI
BSCI is a European social auditing standard covering working hours, fair wages, workplace safety, freedom of association and child labour prevention. Factories are graded A to E; we work with A and B rated units.
WRAP
WRAP is the equivalent standard most requested by US buyers, certifying lawful, humane and ethical manufacturing across twelve principles.
Sedex / SMETA
Sedex is a shared database of ethical audit data; SMETA is the audit methodology behind it. UK and EU retailers commonly require a current SMETA report.
OEKO-TEX Standard 100
A product-level certification confirming that fabric and trims have been tested for harmful substances. This matters for childrenswear and for meeting EU REACH restrictions.
GOTS and GRS
GOTS certifies organic fibre content and processing; GRS certifies recycled content. Both are chain-of-custody standards, so certification must be unbroken from fibre to finished garment.
BSCI, WRAP, Sedex, OEKO-TEX, GOTS and GRS are the schemes buyers ask for most often, and which one applies depends on where you sell rather than where you buy. If your market requires documentation not listed here, tell us at enquiry stage and we will confirm what the assigned factory already holds.
Certificates are issued to individual factories, not to us. We name the assigned unit and supply its current certification before you confirm an order.
Our inspection protocol
Certification tells you a factory is fit to work with
It does not tell you the order in front of you is correct. That requires inspection, and we run four stages on every order.
Pre-production meeting
Before cutting begins, we confirm the approved sample, fabric lot, trims and measurement chart with the factory in person.
Inline inspection at 20% completion
The first finished pieces are measured and checked against the approved sample. Catching a fault here affects a fifth of the order instead of all of it.
Midline inspection at 50–60%
Confirms measurement consistency across sizes and colours, and verifies that fabric from a second dye lot has not shifted in shade.
Final random inspection to AQL 2.5
Statistical sampling of the finished, packed order following ISO 2859-1. You receive a photographic report before shipment is authorised.
No vagueness here
What Happens If an Order Fails Inspection
Rework at the factory’s cost
The order is reworked and re-inspected to the same AQL before it ships. You are not invoiced for the re-inspection.
Same-day notification
You hear from us the day the failure is recorded, with photographs and the options costed.
Refusal after a second failure
If a unit fails the same order twice, we move the balance to a matched factory rather than accept it.
Paperwork
Documentation We Provide
- Audit certificates for the assigned factory
- Inline and midline inspection reports with photographs
- Final AQL inspection report before shipment authorisation
- Commercial invoice, packing list and bill of lading
- Certificate of origin
- Any buyer-specific compliance certificates
Frequently asked questions
Frequently Asked Questions
BSCI certification means the factory has been independently audited against European social compliance standards covering wages, working hours, safety and workers’ rights, and has been graded on the result. For EU importers it increasingly forms part of mandatory supply chain due diligence.
AQL (acceptable quality limit) 2.5 is the general standard for apparel and is what most brands and retailers specify. Tighter levels such as AQL 1.5 are used for premium products; AQL 4.0 for promotional or low-value goods. We can inspect to whichever level you require.
Yes. We provide current certificates for the specific factory assigned to your order before you confirm it.
Yes. Many buyers use SGS, Intertek or Bureau Veritas alongside our internal QC, and we coordinate factory access for them.
The certified segment of the industry has changed substantially since 2013, with structural, fire and electrical remediation across thousands of export factories and ongoing independent auditing. The variance between factories remains wide, which is why we verify certification independently rather than relying on a factory’s own claims.
Want to review a factory’s audit documentation before you commit?
Tell us the product and quantity, and we will name the unit we would assign and send its current certificates.