Clothing Manufacturer for Belgian Brands

No: our family-run cut-and-sew knitwear factory is in Narayanganj, Bangladesh, not in Belgium, and we deliver DDP to any Belgian address. If you searched for a kledingfabrikant or a fabricant de vêtements, that is the honest distinction: the floor is ours, but it is in Bangladesh. For Belgian brands we make t-shirts, polos, hoodies, sweatshirts, joggers, shorts, activewear and loungewear from 150 pieces per style and colour, in organic cotton under our GOTS certification (RSC 9687) if you want it; denim, jackets and woven shirts are sourced by our sister buying house, a separate company. Sea freight enters at Antwerp-Bruges, where Belgium applies the EU's common tariff, so the knitwear is duty-free under Everything But Arms and Belgium's 21% import VAT sits inside our quote. If a made-in-Europe label is central to your brand and price is secondary, a workshop in Portugal will suit you better. For knit basics landed at Antwerp, compare our quote with theirs line by line.

No, not at present: clothing cut and sewn on our floor enters Belgium at 0% duty under the EU's Everything But Arms arrangement, because cutting and sewing in Bangladesh meets its single-transformation origin rule. Belgium applies the common EU tariff, so the answer is the same at Antwerp-Bruges as at Brussels or Liège airport; what Belgium sets itself is the import VAT, which is 21%. Bangladesh's graduation from Least Developed Country status is now due on 24 November 2029, after the UN General Assembly granted its extension request on 29 October 2026. Article 17(2) of Regulation (EU) 2026/1395 keeps EBA for three years from the date a country stops qualifying, so duty-free access runs to at least November 2032. Our LDC graduation guide sets out what may follow, and we confirm the live position in writing for every order.

21%, Belgium's standard rate: Royal Decree No. 20 sets it, and clothing is not on the 6% or 12% reduced-rate lists. The European Commission's Your Europe VAT table gives the same 21% for Belgium. On a Belgian entry the base is the customs value, which already covers freight and insurance to the EU border, plus any duty and the transport and insurance costs to the first place of destination in Belgium. On 500 tees at a US$6.00 customs value, US$3,000 cleared at Antwerp-Bruges with no duty, that is US$630 of Belgian import VAT, plus 21% of any onward leg to that first destination. We quote DDP, so the VAT sits inside the landed price you approve instead of arriving as a separate bill. If your VAT-registered Belgian company is the importer on the entry, it normally recovers that VAT on its periodic return. Ask your accountant how you want it handled, and tell us before the goods ship.

Yes: our minimum is 150 pieces per style and per colour, so a first Belgian drop can be a single style in a single colour. The Belgian detail is the label, because the language is sewn into every piece. A Dutch-only label ties those pieces to Flemish customers and a French-only one to Walloon customers, so a small run labelled for one region is a small stock you cannot safely sell outside it. A combined Dutch-French label keeps all 150 pieces as one stock, whether they sell through a webshop shipping from Ghent to Liège or a shop in Brussels. Colour is where a small budget gets spread too thin: each extra colour is another 150 pieces, dyed as its own lot, so one colour deep usually beats three shallow for a first range. Our MOQ calculator shows how a budget divides across styles and colours before you commit to a range.

In a language the average consumer understands, given the linguistic region where the garment is sold: that is the test in Article VI.8 of the Code de droit économique. In practice that means Dutch in Flanders, French in Wallonia, both in Brussels to be safe, and German if you sell into the East Cantons. Article 16(3) of Regulation (EU) No 1007/2011 ties the label language to the member state of sale, and in Belgium the practical test is the regional one above; the fibre names and percentages still follow the EU format. The choice comes from where you sell, not where you are based. A Ghent brand with a nationwide webshop reaches Walloon customers too, so it normally puts Dutch and French on the same label, while a brand selling only through Flemish shops can keep to Dutch. We sew labels to your artwork in whatever combination of languages you specify, and change the combination between reorders if your markets change.

The importer is: since 13 December 2024 the General Product Safety Regulation (EU) 2023/988 has required an EU-established economic operator to answer for each garment, and if your Belgian company is the importer on the entry, that operator is you. Because we quote DDP, agree in writing when you order who is named as importer. Article 11(3) then puts the importer's own name, postal address and electronic address on the product or, where that is not possible, its packaging or an accompanying document, alongside the manufacturer's details. Article 11(4) requires instructions and safety information in a language consumers easily understand, as the member state determines, and Belgium's Article VI.8 applies its regional-language test to instructions for use as well as labels, so they follow the same Dutch, French or German choice as the fibre label. The importer keeps the technical documentation for ten years; we build it during production and, for organic pieces, supply a GOTS transaction certificate for your order.

Yes: a Belgian brand can clear at Rotterdam instead of Antwerp-Bruges; the entry then carries Dutch rather than Belgian import VAT, both at 21%. Import VAT is due in the member state where the goods are cleared, and the European Commission's Your Europe table gives 21% for both, so the rate does not decide it. Brands that warehouse in the Netherlands often clear there, while Antwerp-Bruges remains the usual sea entry for stock held in Belgium. What decides it is where your stock is held and where your business is VAT-registered. Goods cleared in the Netherlands and then moved to a Belgian warehouse make an intra-EU movement, and a company registered for VAT only in Belgium should plan that movement with its accountant before the first order. Tell us which port you prefer and where your business is VAT-registered when you confirm the order, and we set up the invoice, packing list and DDP delivery for that route.

About ten days for sampling, forty to fifty days for production once the pre-production sample is signed off, then transit: in our experience roughly four to five weeks by sea to Antwerp, or five to eight days by air into Brussels or Liège. Sea freight through Antwerp-Bruges generally suits a full range where freight cost per piece matters more than the calendar; air suits a first drop or a reorder you have already sold. Either way we quote DDP to any Belgian address, so freight, the customs entry, the 21% import VAT and delivery to your warehouse in Flanders, Wallonia or Brussels sit inside one landed price. We confirm the transit for Antwerp with the quote. If you are working back from a launch date, such as a store opening in Antwerp or a webshop drop, tell us that date first and we plan the sample round and the freight mode around it. From order to your door, plan on about 70 days by air.

Yes: our Amsterdam office, at Soetendaal 61, 1081 BN, is a couple of hours by train from Brussels or Antwerp and in the same time zone as Belgium, so a meeting there needs no flight. It is a real office with real people in it, and it handles design conversations, samples and compliance paperwork in Dutch, French or English, so a founder in Flanders or Wallonia can work in their own language. Production happens on our floor at Plot-A-132, Road No. 02, BSCIC Industrial Area, Panchabati, Narayanganj 1420, Bangladesh, four to five hours ahead of Belgium. Before you order anything, ask us for a live video call from the floor during a working shift; it is the quickest way to tell a factory from an agent, and we welcome it. Visits to Narayanganj can be arranged if you want to see the line for yourself, and we reply to enquiries within one business day.

Yes, if your company is the importer named on the customs entry. Every EU import declaration carries the importer's EORI number, and in Belgium it is issued by the EORI Cell of the FPS Finance customs administration. For a company registered in Belgium the number is BE followed by its ten-digit Crossroads Bank for Enterprises number, so it mirrors the enterprise number you already have. You apply on the form on the FPS Finance EORI page and send it by email or post, and the European Commission's national implementation guide gives one or two working days from a complete application. Because we deliver DDP, agree in writing when you order which company is importer of record. If it is yours, your EORI and VAT numbers go on the entry and your company normally recovers the 21% import VAT on its periodic return, so send both numbers with your order confirmation.

Today only above a threshold, but plan for it. Belgium's interregional cooperation agreement currently applies to companies placing more than 300 kg of packaging a year on the Belgian market, and they comply either by declaring it themselves or by joining an accredited organisation: Fost Plus for packaging found in households, Valipac for packaging found in companies, and both where it ends up in both. A polybag on a webshop order ends up in a household; an export carton opened in your warehouse ends up in a company. EPRiBEL's FAQ on the EU packaging regulation says Belgium's coming law will have no de minimis threshold, although producers responsible for under 10 tonnes of packaging waste get simplified reporting. It also says Incoterms are not really relevant to deciding who the producer is, and that for private-label goods the brand owner is as a rule the manufacturer, so expect the obligation to sit with you rather than with us.