CASE STUDY: Trade Finance for a Women’s Fashion Manufacturer
- Commercial Finance Advisor
- Mar 28, 2025
- 3 min read
Updated: Dec 31, 2025
Scaling an international fashion brand means funding design talent, overseas manufacturing, and shipping long before retailers pay. The right cash-flow solution keeps growth moving without tying up property.
A Sydney-based fashion entrepreneur has been running a women’s fashion business for over decades. Her team of designers creates women collections for five seasons each year, planning designs one year in advance.
The business also owns and operates its own factory in China, employing a dedicated workforce to manufacture clothing for three key brands: glamour wear, formal wear, and business attire. Designs are created in Sydney, where the business hires top designers, often poached from major fashion retailers, ensuring collections are high-quality, on-trend, and commercially competitive.
Once production is complete, garments are imported to Sydney and distributed to retailers across Australia, New Zealand, and Asia. Each item costs approximately $25 on average to produce, is sold to clients for around $45–50, and typically retails to end consumers for between $70–150.
The Business Challenge
Each production cycle requires significant upfront funding to cover manufacturing costs in China, freight, import duties, marketing, and warehouse operations across both China and Sydney.
Retailers are offered 30-day payment terms, creating a material cash-flow gap, particularly with multiple seasonal collections running concurrently.
While the owner holds substantial commercial property assets and residential properties, she prefers to preserve flexibility by initially pursuing unsecured funding rather than pledging real estate.
The business must maintain sufficient working capital to fund overlapping production cycles, retain top-tier designers in Sydney, manage international logistics across three markets, and deliver collections on time to meet seasonal demand.
Without appropriate funding, the business risks production delays, lost sales, and strained retailer relationships.
The Funding Solution
For an import-heavy, vertically integrated fashion business, flexible cash-flow funding is critical.
Trade finance can fund upfront manufacturing, wages, and shipping, with repayments aligned to shipment arrivals and sales, without requiring property security.
Invoice financing unlocks cash tied up in retailer invoices, bridging the gap between production costs and customer payments as the business scales.
A line of credit provides flexible working capital for ongoing expenses such as designer salaries, freight, and marketing, with funds revolving as invoices are paid.
Traditional term loans are generally less suitable due to fixed repayments that don’t align with seasonal cash-flow cycles. If desired, property or other assets can later be offered as security to reduce borrowing costs, where the owner considers the risk appropriate.
Potential Benefits
Accessing trade finance or invoice financing allows the business to fund production and wages in China, cover shipping, import duties, and warehouse costs, and retain top designers in Sydney without cash-flow pressure.
These facilities support multiple seasonal production cycles, scale with sales volumes, and align funding with the timing of collections, providing a self-liquidating solution without tying up property assets.
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DISCLAIMER: This case study is illustrative only and may be hypothetical or partially fictitious. Details may be modified to preserve confidentiality and should not be relied upon as a representation of any actual client outcome. Finance options are subject to individual lender credit criteria, approval, and applicable terms and conditions. This content is general information only and does not constitute financial, legal, tax, or accounting advice. Our firm provides business consulting and finance broking services only and recommends that readers seek independent professional advice tailored to their specific circumstances.
