VF Corp, Financier Loan Bangladesh Factories $1.3 Million to Boost Safety

Apparel company VF Corp. and the International Finance Corporation together lent an initial $1.3 million to three Bangladeshi factories for fire prevention and infrastructure upgrading, the companies said on Dec. 8 (here). "Through the financing arrangement, VF provides a full corporate guarantee for up to $10 million" in loans to VF’s contract suppliers, it said. VF, which owns Timberland, The North Face, Nautica and other apparel brands, is one of 26 members of the Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety, an industry group American companies spearheaded in mid-2013 following a series of Bangladeshi labor disasters (see 13071613). The loans went to factory owners Arunima Sportswear, Olio Apparels, and Radisson Apparel. The Obama administration removed Bangladesh's Generalized System of Preferences beneficiary status due to labor conditions earlier this year (see 14042405).