IBUS305 Essay

Success factors
Supply chain
Supply chain is one of the factor that leads to the success of Ice Breaker nowadays. There is a huge
amount of processess and members involved in Ice Breakers operations, beginning with the
sourcing of raw materials to bringing finished products to customers hands in stores.
First, the merino wool was shipped to China for top making. This process includes scouring the wool,
carding, combing and washing. The next step of the supply chain is wool spinning. Previously, this
process was done in Australia and Korea but Ice Breaker realized that was not effective, it only
added more lag time and made the process more complex. Therefore, Ice Breaker decided to do this
process in a big German-owned factory in China that could reuse the heat from its air conditioning
systems process. As a result, Ice Breaker has acquired enhanced and consistent quality, cut down
the costs and extremely reduced the lag time.
Once the merino fiber is spun, the next process is clothing manufacturing. This process is done in
two different locations in USA, the fibre used for producing socks is done in North Carolia and the
fibre used for producing clothes is sent to textile and garment factory in Shanghai. Inspite of what
products to be manufactured, they are all designed in Portland, USA.
By using three locations to manufacture its products, we can easily see that cost leadership is not Ice
Breakers universal strategy certainly. What Ice Breaker has aimed is focusing on what Porter (1980)
classifed as a segmentation strategy. By taking advantage from its uniqueness of the product on the
subject of quality and innovation in relatively small markets. Moving the manufacturing process
offshore may cost Ice Breaker more money but recently, the New Zealand texttile industry has been
slowing down. As a result, overseas manufacturing factories has been more efficient in producing
garments that also have better quality products than those in New Zealand. For Ice Breaker, the
quality of the products always has to be in the first place.
The final products from the factories in US and China will be shipped to Ice Breakers markets all
over the world such as Australia, Belgium, Canada, Czech Repulic, Denmark and Germany. The whole
supply chain processes from wool collection, top making, manufacturing to shipping finished goods
usually takes around 33 to 44 weeks. All these processes have to be perfectly taken care of by
experts to ensure a high amount of coordination and obtain the best results.


Ice Breakers supply chain
As mentioned that Ice breaker always put the quality of the products in the first place, thoughout
the supply chain, products has always been strictly checked by a Japanese inspection service and a
Chinese quality control company. Viv Feldbrugge Technology, Quality and Environment manager
stated: Ice Breaker is a mini United Nations. (Viv Feldbrugge,n.d)

Uniqueness of the products
This is another factor that has led Ice Breaker to success, Ice Breaker has created its own category
unlike any other brands. They create their story and place them into every garment, it is a story
about relationships between nature and human. That is the core theme of Ice Breaker in every
aspect of their design.
Like the meaning of the brand, Ice Breaker means breaking the ice between people, between
humanity and nature, betwwen wool and skin. Ice Breaker products are made to capture the
physicality aswell as the feeling of wearer everytime they worn.
Counterfeit products are becoming widespread over markets nowadays. Like other large brands in
the world, Ice Breaker could not avoid counterfeit products. Some clothes that copy Ice Breaker
design are not even classified as counterfeit products. But Ice Breaker was a long distance a head
from them, the creative design along with the standards of both raw material and manufacturing
process has given Ice Breakers products their own features that could not be easily copy. This
strength can be characterised as Rarity from VRIO framework.

Reference list
Andrade, A.(2010). Nothing to Hide: Managing Intellectual Assets Throughout the Supply Chain.
Retrieved 20/8/2014 from
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Better by Design. (n.d). Ice Breaker. Retrieved 20/8/2014 from
http://www.betterbydesign.org.nz/resources/new-zealand-design-stories/icebreaker/