Swiss clothing firm denies layoffs

Contradicting earlier reports, Triumph International (Thailand) has denied any link with a garment company that laid off 800 employees on Friday. A statement from the Swiss Triumph Holding AG on yesterday said the company sold its production facilities in Thailand to Body Fashion (Thailand) 4 years ago. Accoding to the company’s head of corporate communications:

“In fact, Triumph has handed over its Thai production network ‘Body Fashion Thailand as long ago as January 2016, to the Malaysian textile and apparel entrepreneur Robert Ng. In Thailand, all 2,757 employees and management were taken over. There were no lay-offs of personnel or management.”

The sale of the facility by Triumph in 2016 was part of a restructuring of its global supply chain to focus solely on marketing and sales.

On its website, BFT describes its business as outsourcing in the textile and clothing industry but doesn’t list the brands or names of its customers. It manufactures women’s underwear and swimwear. It’s unclear whether BFT still supplies products under the Triumph brand.

After a 3 month closure, more than 800 BFT workers arrived for work at the factory in the lower northern Nakhon Sawan province on Friday and were greeted with a sign saying they had all been laid off because of the slump in sales caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

SOURCES: Nation Thaland | Bangkok Post