Estri-Ella. is a Caribbean based T-Shirt and Ladies Casual Fashion retailer. It opened its doors in Jan 15th 2005, in Jamaica, starting with a basic screen printing operation, and a small store in Kingstown. It sources fabric and t-shirts internationally and uses a small network of seamstresses and in-house talent to produce its t-shirts and ladies casual fashion (dresses, tops and bottoms, jumpsuits). Since then, it has grown to 5 stores predominantly focused on ladies between 20 and 55 years old, all located in various locations around Jamaica. Estri-Ella is owned and operated by Dennis Jackman, CEO and 100% of its sales are from its physical stores across Jamaica, but the owner’s daughter Gemma Jackman-Whitney, who is also his Chief Operating Officer, COO, has been urging the CEO, Dennis Jackman to embrace new social media tools and e-commerce. The CEO has always been reluctant in the past, however at this point he is concerned, as economic conditions in Jamaica have deteriorated, and his 5 stores are not performing as well as previous years. He has always toyed with the idea of expanding the brand and footprint to other Caribbean islands, as well as to international locations like New York, Toronto and London. And, given the renewed pressure from his COO to also consider social media tools and e-commerce, he is seriously considering a major change in strategy. He called his executive staff into a meeting to confirm that maybe the time has come to expand regionally and internationally, as well as embrace social media tools and e-commerce. The initial expansion countries would be Trinidad, Grenada, Antigua, The Bahamas and New York. Of course, this is not an expansion and strategy change to be undertaken lightly. To ensure that they make the right decisions and proceed carefully, he has asked his executive team to:
a. Develop a brief on the sourcing / production strategy. Should it continue to source and produce all items in Jamaica? Or source and produce items in each market, or another model?
b. Why?