Apparel, textile and leather industry
Fashionable, functional, innovative yet with a touch of traditional materials such as wool, linen etc.
Lithuania’s textile and clothing industry, maintaining its centuries-old traditions, today is actively investing in creating unique brands and contemporary design, in effort to develop products with higher added value. 922 companies were active in these industries at the beginning of 2017, 97.8 percent of them were SMEs.
The textiles, clothing and leather industries accounts for about 1.6 % of GDP, employing around 20.2 thousand workers or 2.9 percent of total employment.
In 2016 production of the textiles, clothing and leather industries (at current prices excl. taxes) amounted to 853.9 million EUR.
According to EURATEX, in 2014 Lithuania was among the 3 countries in EU where the production of textile and clothing industry was the fastest growing.
Kids wear is the category which shows fastest export growth results in the whole industry.
Lithuania’s textile and clothing sectors are export oriented: around ¾ production is exported to more than 100 countries around the world.
In 2016 exports of the Lithuanian textile, clothing and leather industries grow 1.9 % while total exports of goods declined 1.3 %. Exports of the textile, clothing and leather industries amounted to 785 million EUR last year.
The country’s textiles and apparel articles are exported not only to most European and CIS countries, but also North America and Asia. European Union countries accounted for more than 83 % of Lithuanian produced textile, clothing and leather exports. The most important export markets for Lithuanian produced textile, clothing and leather in 2015 were Germany (16 % of total Lithuanian produced exports of textiles, clothing and leather), Denmark (13.1 %), UK (13 %), Sweden (10.6 %).
Key production and services branches
- Wearing apparel
- Textile
- Home textile
- Knitwear
- Yarns
- Linen
- CM/CMT services
Most of the sewing companies, because of convenient geographical location, flexibility, short production and delivery time switched on a sub-contracting work for the major European and US brands ranking from houte couture to popular chains like Next, Laura Ashley, Hugo Boss, H&M, Mark & Spencer, Nike, Decathlon and others. Lithuania had quickly got a name of a flexible, high quality, innovative, very specific production country. Therefore Lithuanians produce uniforms and workwear tailored for such institutions like NATO, fire departments, police etc.
Today Lithuania is more than just a production source. New companies and business models are filling in the sector and supplementing a traditional sewing and weaving industry with modern and high added value services. Lithuania now is becoming a recognized intelligent supply management and global logistic operator for the North Europe and CIS markets. Many foreign companies have already discovered the benefits of cooperation with our companies.
Industry’s key competitive advantages
- Good quality and price ratio
- Short production and delivery time
- Ability to produce small batches
- High technological and linguistic staff competences and work culture
- Business experience in Western Europe and other countries, especially CIS
- Integration into global value chains
- High quality and attractive design production meets European standards
- Deep industry traditions
About 15 percent of companies are owned by foreign capital, mostly dominated by investors from Scandinavian countries.
Overview of Textile, Clothing and Leather industry
