Triumph International (Thailand) Co Ltd has denied links with a garment company that laid off 800 employees in Thailand on Friday.
In a statement issued by Switzerland-based Triumph Holding AG on Saturday, the company said it had sold its production facilities in Thailand to Body Fashion (Thailand) Ltd four years ago.
“In fact, Triumph has handed over its Thai production network ‘Body Fashion Thailand’ (BFT) as long ago as January 2016, to the Malayan [sic] textile and apparel entrepreneur Robert Ng,” Olaf Kratz, head of corporate communications, said in the statement.
The sale of the facility by Triumph in 2016 was part of the restructuring of its global supply chain to focus only on marketing and sales.
“In Thailand, all 2,757 employees and management were taken over. There were no lay-offs of personnel or management,” the company said.
On its website, BFT describes its business as outsourcing in the textile and clothing industry but did not list the brands or names of its customers. The products it makes are women’s underwear and swimwear. It is unclear whether BFT still supplies products under the Triumph brand.
After a three-month closure, more than 800 BFT workers arrived for work at the factory in Nakhon Sawan on Friday and were greeted with a sign saying they had all been laid off because of the slump in sales caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
