BODEN, the mail-order clothes company, is to stop buying clothes supplies from China. The trader, which has been sourcing a quarter of its stock from China, fears that otherwise it could be the victim of fresh “bra wars” next year.

Instead, Boden will import from other countries, which it says cannot offer the same cheapness and reliability.

Textile quotas were reintroduced in June, restricting imports of cheap Chinese-made trousers, sweaters, bras and T-shirts in a bid to protect textile producers in the European Union. Retailers’ stocks were locked up in warehouses, threatening the survival of hundreds of smaller retailers.

Boden said that “protectionist interference” was made even more unacceptable when rules were imposed without notice by ministers who seemed to have no understanding of the industries involved. Ultimately, it said, consumers were forced to pay the price of this through more expensive clothes and unreliable stock.

Julian Granville, managing director of Boden, said: “The Government needs to understand the lead times of the industry it is trying to regulate so that we have time to react to new rules. We cannot take the risk of massive protectionist measures [being applied] to new categories [of clothes] and being given just five weeks to adjust.”

He said that certainty of supply was particularly important for mail-order businesses where, once a catalogue was released, customers expected to be able to get hold of the featured stock. Customers, he said, were the ones to suffer: “If we take the decision not to make our goods in the optimal place in the world that there is to make something, then ultimately the customer can end up paying the price.”

Boden, founded by Jonnie Boden, a former stockbroker, hit sales of £85.9 million last year, but it had 60,000 items of clothing locked up for five weeks in customs during the EU-China stand-off.

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