Clothing Manufacturer for French Brands

No, not at present: a garment cut and sewn on our floor qualifies for 0% duty into France under the EU's Everything But Arms arrangement, because cutting and sewing in Bangladesh meets the EU's single-transformation origin rule for garments. The rate is the same whether the goods clear at Le Havre, Marseille-Fos or Paris-CDG, where French customs, the Direction générale des douanes et droits indirects, applies the common EU tariff. Bangladesh's graduation from LDC status is now set for 24 November 2029, after the UN General Assembly granted it more time on 29 October 2026. Regulation (EU) 2026/1395 keeps Everything But Arms for three years after graduation, so French entries keep that access until about the end of 2032. Verified 21 September 2026; we confirm it for every order, and our LDC graduation guide sets out the scenarios.

France charges import VAT on clothing at 20%, the taux normal de TVA, because clothing takes none of the reduced rates of 10%, 5.5% and 2.1% (European Commission, Your Europe, read 27 Sep 2026). The douane's base is the customs value, which includes freight and insurance to the EU border, plus any duty and the transport costs on to the first destination in France. On 500 tees at a US$6.00 factory price, that is US$600, 20% of the US$3,000 of goods, plus 20% of the freight, insurance and onward transport, with no duty. We quote DDP, so the VAT is costed into the landed price rather than arriving as a separate bill from the douane. Whether you then declare and recover it on your own TVA return depends on whose TVA number is on the import declaration, so confirm the mechanism with your expert-comptable before the first shipment. Overseas departments carry different rates.

Yes: the floor is 150 pieces per style and per colour, so a French brand can launch one tee in one colour with 150 pieces, or the same tee in three colours with 450. Each colour is dyed as its own lot and priced as one. French first ranges tend to run to three to five hundred pieces over two or three styles, so the GPSR file and French labels are built once and reused on every reorder. At this size the choice of Refashion declaration matters. Its 2026 simplified declaration, open to a marketer placing under 5,000 pieces a year with no eco-modulation products, costs €0.5799 per clothing piece, about €87 on 150 tees; the detailed declaration charges €0.0396 for an adult men's T-shirt-type top, about €6. Both come before Refashion's administrative costs and ADEME fee (2026 schedule, read 23 Sep 2026). Our MOQ calculator models the colour split.

Yes, for the fibre composition: under Article 16(3) of Regulation (EU) No 1007/2011, the label must use the official language of the country where the garment is sold, so French for France, with each fibre and its percentage by weight. French law goes further: Article 2 of the Loi Toubon (Loi n° 94-665, read 27 Sep 2026) makes French compulsory in the designation, presentation and instructions for use of any product, so care wording and hang-tag copy need a French version too. If you also sell in Germany, one label can carry French and German together; we sew it to your artwork in whichever languages you name. The General Product Safety Regulation adds the manufacturer's name, postal address and electronic contact on the product or packaging. Any origin you print must be true, so a garment from our floor can say Made in Bangladesh and never fabriqué en France.

Yes, if your business first places the clothing on the French market. Since 1 January 2007 France has required anyone professionally placing new clothing for households on its market to contribute to its recycling and treatment, through a producer-responsibility scheme now run by Refashion, approved as an eco-organisation until 31 December 2028. You declare your pieces by product line, pay the eco-contribution per piece, and receive a unique identifier number, the IDU, showing you are registered. If your business is not established in France but is itself the producer placing the goods on the French market, for example a Belgian or UK brand selling direct to French customers, Article L541-10-9-1 of the Code de l'environnement has also required, since 10 July 2026, a representative established in France, appointed by written mandate. We cannot register for you, because only you know how many pieces you sell in France. We can give you the fibre composition of every style when you approve the pre-production sample.

Yes: since 1 January 2026, Article L524-1 of the Code de l'environnement has banned making, importing or selling consumer clothing, footwear and their waterproofing agents that contain PFAS, protective and safety wear excepted. Décret n° 2025-1376 sets the limits: 25 ppb per individual PFAS and 250 ppb in total by targeted analysis, and 50 ppm including polymers. France covers PFAS as a class, while EU law restricts named PFAS groups, with PFHxA added from 10 October 2026, so a hoodie that passes the EU limits can still fail in France. Products made before 1 January 2026 have a twelve-month allowance, which runs to the end of 2026. Your fabric is dyed at partner dye houses, not on our floor, so tell us at quote stage that you sell in France and we can arrange third-party laboratory testing of the fabric and its trims, with the report sent alongside the shipment.

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 northern European ports and five to eight days by air; we confirm the figure for Le Havre, Marseille-Fos or Paris-CDG with the quote. Sea freight leaves from Chattogram and runs via Suez. Give us the final address, whether a warehouse or your own studio, and the quote covers freight, customs entry, the 20% import VAT and delivery to that door as one landed price. The commercial invoice and packing list reach you before the goods move. While the order is in production, our Amsterdam office works in your time zone, in English or French. Our launch-date calculator counts back from the day you want the pieces on sale in France. From order to your door, plan on about 70 days by air.

For some French brands, yes: if fabriqué en France is central to what you sell, if you need fifty pieces re-cut next week, or if you want to stand in the workshop while it is sewn, a French atelier serves you better. Production inside the EU also means no customs entry and no import-VAT event, and in our view Portugal is one route to a made-in-Europe label on small runs, at the highest unit cost of the options we compare. Where we are the better answer is knitwear at volume: tees, hoodies, joggers and activewear made to your pattern from 150 pieces per style and colour, in organic cotton if you want it, with our floor GOTS certified (RSC 9687; scope certificate on request), and one landed cost that already includes France's 20% import VAT, with no duty under Everything But Arms. You can also split the range: French-made pieces where the label is the story, knit basics with us.

Ask any fabricant de vêtements you are considering for three things: a street address, a live video call from the floor during a working shift, and the scope certificate behind any GOTS claim. Ours is Plot-A-132, Road No. 02, BSCIC Industrial Area, Panchabati, Narayanganj 1420, Bangladesh; the video call is not a problem, a visit to Narayanganj can be arranged, and the scope certificate for GOTS RSC 9687 is available on request. If your French searches keep ending at agents who will not name the factory, ask directly who cuts and sews your order. The easier first meeting is our Amsterdam office at Soetendaal 61, one hour from Paris by air, where you can see samples in person without flying to Dhaka and talk through compliance paperwork in English or French. Finished pieces are checked against your approved sample by Walter Meyer, our QC lead, who has 38 years in quality control. Our factory vetting guide lists the other checks.

Not always, but it decides how the import TVA is handled. Since 1 January 2022 each French import declaration must say who owes the TVA: either the French TVA number of the person liable, the same on every line, or, for a person liable who is neither taxable nor identified for TVA in France, a special mention saying so. A declaration with neither is rejected, and so is one carrying an invalid or suspended number, which customs checks automatically (douane note aux opérateurs, 23 November 2021). If your company is identified for TVA in France, self-assessment is compulsory and automatic: you report the import TVA on your turnover return to the DGFiP instead of paying it to customs (douane.gouv.fr). The note suggests checking the number in the Commission's VIES database first. How the 20% sits in our DDP quote depends on whose number goes on the declaration, so settle it with your expert-comptable before the goods leave Chattogram.

A great deal. The French Treasury's economic service in Dhaka, using French customs data, puts French imports from Bangladesh at €3.96 billion in 2024, up 2% on the year, with clothing and other textile products making up nearly 94% of the total. French exports the other way came to €167 million (DG Trésor, published July 2025). For a small French brand the practical point is that the lane is well used, and in our experience forwarders and commissionnaires en douane at Le Havre, Marseille-Fos and Paris-CDG handle Bangladeshi origin and the Everything But Arms statement on origin routinely. A first order of 150 pieces per style and colour moves through the same ports and the same paperwork as much larger shipments, which our guide to importing clothing into the EU sets out. What changes with your size is the Refashion declaration and who acts as importer, both covered elsewhere on this page.