As part of the SOMO study on the garment industry, SOMO conducted two company case studies on the Dutch companies GSUS and WE International. These companies were selected for a number of reasons:

WE International was selected because of it's involvement in the SA 8000 system. SA 8000 is one of the initiatives that receives much attention in the CSR debate. Therefore, SOMO was interested to assess the level of implementation of CSR norms by one of the main proponents of SA 8000, namely WE International.

GSUS , a small Dutch garment brand, was selected because it is a young, fast-growing company. SOMO was interested to assess to what extent such a young newcomer in the field was working with CSR issues.

The case studies on these two companies have focused on their corporate structures, CSR policies and implementation systems in place. However, it was beyond the scope of this research to assess the actual labour conditions in the factories that produce for these companies.

Somo, November 2004