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SAP global template brought this company down

Whoever thought bringing SAP global template to FLNA should be the ones fired. As well as Mexico buyers. No wonder stock hasn't recovered since Q4 . Ramon even admitted it interviews SAP hurt us . As far as I see every FLNA PLANT is sc--wed up . Vendors put our company on hold for non payment . Cannot order items to keep plants running .


Goodwill

GG here:

Well folks. Today is the day we all saw coming a mile away. As of this morning and the Goodwill write down, XRX has a total enterprise value lower that its debt.

Technically, XRX is worth more dead, than alive.

What can we expect now? Perhaps:

A lower bond rating? This could actually help XRX in the short term, it they use cash to buy back debt for pennies on the dollar. Knowing what we know now, a CCC+ rating might be generous.

A supply chain, chain reaction? LP admitted in the call that vendors are restricting credit, which forces spot payments, or rotating to higher priced vendors willing to shoulder the credit risk for inflated prices charged. He didn't let that slip on accident; he said it because he had to, his hand was forced and he had to disclose. Vendors are the lifeblood of a business and when credit is cut off, that is game over. We are near that point now. Every major vendor was on that call today and heard the same thing you did form LP.

Slow pay, no pay? On the flip side are the people that pay XRX, and the doom loop effects these people too. How excited are people to renew service with a proprietary vendor that could go belly up? Also, there are a lot of gross people out there that will slow pay, no pay a vendor they think is going belly up, as to buy time at 0$ interest or see if the bill disappears in CH11 proceedings.

New business? People who are already in bed with XRX in the form of proprietary hardware are one thing, but net new clients are another. Why would anyone sign up for that kind of vendor risk? Large companies won't, just the small and uninformed.

TL;DR from the call:
Vendors are cutting us off.
We are worth $1BN less than we were on Monday.
We can no longer pay dividends.
Sales are down.
Cash is gone.
We are blaming this all on the price of Oil and RAM.


Lululemon Fabric Team Restructured Amid Quality Concerns

Lululemon has reduced its fabric development team by seven positions. This reorganization occurred in August as the company shifts capabilities closer to international vendors. The move aims to improve supply chain execution and prevent product flaws. These changes follow recent customer complaints about sheer leggings. The company is now hiring for similar roles in Taiwan and Vietnam.

Vancouver, British Columbia

https://sgbonline.com/exec-lululemon-fabric-team-undergoes-layoffs-following-product-quality-complaints/


Year End Stock Price

Air Force 1 resurgence saves the day because apparently the answer to ki-ling the Dunk is going back to 1982.

PACE keeps pacing, the India supply-chain team will be cooking while we sleep and sleeping while we work, and unless somebody plans on selling a million pairs of one shoe, none of this fixes the math.

Good news though: now that we’re down to four geos, maybe we can just combine the other three and hide the North America decline.

See you at $26.


"Setting Nike Up for the Long Term" - a.k.a layoff boogaloo

Team,
Today we're announcing changes to Nike's operating model that will help us accelerate and scale the Sport Offense and position Nike for long-term growth. 
The future will belong to companies that can move faster, serve athletes and consumers more locally, and invest more aggressively in innovation. To do that, Nike must make changes to become a more agile, efficient and athlete-focused company. 
This work will result in fewer roles across Nike, and I want to acknowledge that news like this creates uncertainty. I don't take that lightly. Throughout this process, we will communicate directly, act with transparency and treat people with respect. Decisions about impacted roles related to this work will begin in calendar year 2027 and beyond. 
For most teammates, the work immediately in front of you remains the same. We have shared some financial information, but these numbers are estimates and could materially change. Anything you may see in media reports around impacts is speculative because we do not yet know the number of roles or specific locations of positions. 
I want to further explain the changes we’re making and what we’re building to drive sustainable, profitable growth. I also encourage you to listen to our Q1 earnings call to understand more. 
Building Nike for the Future 
Over the past year, we've put sport at the center of everything we do. We're seeing encouraging signs of progress, but we have more work to do to win over the long term. We must get closer to athletes and consumers, make decisions faster, and focus our investments on the areas that create the most value.  
We’re calling these efforts Pace.  
Pace 
Pace is not a new strategy, and it is not a reaction to one quarter. Pace is built around four priorities: 

  • Accelerating our supply chain modernization efforts 
  • Organizing into three geographies  
  • Establishing a new campus in India 
  • Changing our work and workforce 
    Together, these shifts will create a company with global scale, local speed and the flexibility to serve athletes in a rapidly changing marketplace. 
    Supply Chain Modernization: Flexible, Responsive and Efficient 
We started this journey more than one year ago and it’s showing considerable progress.  
    Our Supply Chain and Technology teams have concrete plans underway to deliver a more responsive and flexible model through the strong partnerships they have built in the industry.  
    These changes include technology solutions and a more variable cost structure. They will improve speed, service and profitability while giving us greater flexibility to respond to consumer demand. 
    At our scale, these efforts matter. 
    Moving Closer to Athletes and Consumers: Three Geographies 
We plan to organize Nike into three geographies to bring more decisions, accountability and resources closer to the markets we serve.  
    The three geographies will be: 
  • Americas, bringing together North America and Latin America 
  • APGC, bringing together Asia Pacific and Greater China 
  • EMEA, which will continue operating where it does today 
    As part of this change, the APGC leadership team will be based in Singapore, and some roles currently supporting the region from Beaverton will move closer to the athletes and markets they serve. We expect teams to move into this new formation in Fiscal Year 2028. 
    Bengaluru: A New Nike Campus for Future Capabilities 
We are establishing a new Nike campus in Bengaluru, India. India is already an important growth market and manufacturing hub for Nike, with strong capabilities and access to talent. The Bengaluru campus is a long-term investment in new capabilities and talent to strengthen how we serve athletes around the world, including in India. Full-time Nike teammates on this campus will support work across Nike, Jordan Brand and Converse.  
    Teammates already in India will move in phases, and the campus will grow over the next several years. 
    Evolving Our Work and Workforce 
As we change how and where we work, Nike will require fewer roles over time. 
    These decisions are about redirecting investment toward the areas most critical to winning: product innovation, brand storytelling, consumer connection, sport and growth. 
    Again, decisions about impacted roles related to this work will begin in calendar year 2027 and beyond. Teammates affected by these changes will hear directly from their leaders, with clear timelines and support as decisions are made. Where local consultation is required, we won’t finalize proposals until that process is complete.  
    Looking Ahead 
Tomorrow at our NIKE Team Meeting (NTM), we’ll spend more time walking through these changes, and we’ll continue sharing updates through our employee hub on Workvivo.  
    At our Investor Day on Nov. 16-17, we’ll share more details about Nike’s next phase of growth, the financial plan behind it, and how Pace supports our long-term competitive position. We’ll come together again as a company for our next NTM on Nov. 18 to continue the conversation about Investor Day and our strategy. 
    The work ahead is significant, but the objective is simple: Build a faster, stronger Nike that is closer to athletes, more responsive to consumers and better positioned to win. 
    Thank you for what you do for athletes and consumers, for Nike and for one another. 
    And thank you for the passion, commitment and resilience you bring to this company

Get ready for the storm

Most PepsiCo employees will skim past the recent board appointment Joaquin Duarte. This appointment is part of Elliot Managements activist investment influence. PepsiCo is being reshaped and transformed with Pepsi/Frito merged distribution. 3rd party logistics are the future of their supply chain. Shareholder value will reach peak meaning soon. Job cuts will continue and likely be rolling job eliminations as duplicate roles will be targeted first. Macro economics are not favorable, but employees are dispensable in the short term. Anything is on the table to save share price. Don’t get comfortable and have your resume updated.


You Can't Cut Your Way Back to Wall Street

Dropping an opinion here that I hope actually reaches someone, since I've heard senior leadership is listening for input right now. I also know a lot of people here would be curious how this might all play out. Here’s a take to sit with.

Start with the pieces. Comcast is splitting NBCUniversal and Sky off into their own company. What's left? connectivity, the broadband and cable business, becomes the core company going forward. For the first time, this business has to stand on its own in front of investors without NBCUniversal's cash flow underneath it. Right as that's happening, Jason Armstrong stood up at Goldman Sachs and called this the largest cost transformation in company history, billions in savings are coming. In the same breath, he said broadband losses aren't improving this quarter. Stock dropped over 6% that day, and it dropped on the subscriber number, not the savings number. Wall Street got both stories in the same sentence and only reacted to ONE of them. That already tells you cost efficiency isn't what moves this stock.

These moves feel like a room full of CFOs racing to cut the org chart while staying completely tone deaf to what the Customer actually experiences. That matters because cost transformation and Customer stabilization aren't the same lever. This is an internal savings story, not a Customer story, full stop. Cutting management layers or overhead shows up in margin next quarter. It does nothing to change why a household picks a $30 fiber offer over us.

Even if the program runs perfectly, it's solving a different problem than the one actually dragging on the stock, and the timing makes that worse. Connectivity is about to be judged as a standalone, and a standalone broadband company showing margin discipline while still bleeding subscribers doesn't read as disciplined. It reads like a company that got its cost base in order because it couldn't get its Customer numbers in order.

The earmarking backs this up. Armstrong pointed to wireless expansion and monetizing data as where some of this money goes, not broadband pricing, not service, not the product the Customer is actually leaving over.

Broadband lost roughly 650K subscribers last year and another 230K plus already this year, and fiber keeps expanding into our footprint.

We've also underperformed the market for close to 3 years straight now, well below where the stock sat at its highs. Trimming layers doesn't touch any of that, because none of it was ever built around the Customer to begin with.

The take is that this doesn't just fail to move the stock, it makes it worse.

Play it forward for a second, connectivity goes public on its own, still losing subscribers, still facing the same pricing pressure, now carrying a cost story instead of a Customer story. That's a demand side problem being treated with a supply side fix, and Wall Street has already shown which side it prices. The Customer sees nothing change either, same price, same service, same frustration. Cutting costs without moving those numbers doesn't buy goodwill from either side. It just proves the transformation shrank the business instead of fixing the thing that's actually been dragging it down for years, because the Customer was never the one being optimized for.


WSJ: Chevron’s Mike Wirth and others warn global supplies are running low, with no respite in sight

Oil Executives Say the Great Fuel Crisis Is Here

  • Trump officials say the oil-market disruption is temporary, but Chevron’s Mike Wirth and others warn global supplies are running low, with no respite in sight.

https://www.wsj.com/business/energy-oil/oil-executives-say-the-great-fuel-crisis-is-here-b6b32030

By Benoît Morenne and Collin Eaton
September 14, 2026 at 5:06 p.m. ET

American oil executives warned for months that the prolonged closure of the Strait of Hormuz was bound to cause a fuel crisis. Now, they say it is here.

Commercial fuel stocks around the world have been depleting for more than six months, and strategic crude reserves cannot be tapped much further. Attacks last week shut down a crucial crude pipeline in Saudi Arabia that bypassed the Strait, stranding at least 2.5 million barrels a day from an already tight global oil market, analysts estimate.

“All these mechanisms helped to mitigate the price and supply risk,” Chevron Chief Executive Mike Wirth said Friday at an energy conference in Austin, Texas. “Those have largely now played out, and we don’t have nearly the buffers in the system that we did when it began.”

It is hard to predict where oil prices will go, he added, but at the moment, it is difficult to envision prices coming back down quickly.

“I wish I could tell you that I saw some reason why things would ease, but it’s difficult right now to see that happen,” he said.

Veteran energy advisers say that with no resolution to the Iran war in sight, the situation risks spinning out of control. Diesel prices have soared to a record $6.23 a gallon, while gasoline prices, which slipped below $4 a gallon this summer, have rebounded to $4.32. Some energy analysts say they have been fielding investor questions about when consumers pinched by high prices will start pulling back on new purchases.

The Trump administration has repeatedly promised Americans that prices at the pump would decline and that energy flows out of the Middle East would keep increasing.

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said at a Houston G-20 event on Monday that “the prices in the prior administration were this high anyway” and that Americans would have paid those prices permanently because former President Joe Biden was “pursuing a policy of energy subtraction and shutting down refineries.”

“If you want to write about the prices, make sure you include the word ‘temporary’ because this is a temporary disruption,” Burgum told reporters.

The White House sees two major measures it can take to help ease prices: boosting production in Venezuela and increasing U.S. fuel-making capacity.

In recent months, U.S. officials have focused on striking deals expected to bolster Venezuela’s oil production. In early September, they met with U.S. refining executives to discuss expanding the nation’s fuel-making capacity. A senior U.S. official said the administration is pleased with the progress made on both fronts.

Energy executives and White House officials say they have maintained a continuing dialogue about the energy situation since the conflict began. CEOs including Wirth speak frequently with Energy Secretary Chris Wright.

Wirth said Friday that he had not spoken with President Trump since August 3, when the president said in a Truth Social post that the CEO had not credited his administration for the oil industry’s good fortunes. Trump called on Chevron and other oil companies to bring “consumer (retail!) Oil Prices DOWN, NOW!”

Some CEOs and energy advisers say they have grown alarmed in recent weeks as the conflict has intensified, with ships and energy infrastructure being targeted by both sides.

“The advantage in most negotiations usually goes to the side that has time on their side, and is willing to be patient,” said Wil VanLoh, founder and CEO of Quantum Capital Group, during the Austin conference.

Iran, he said, “is willing to suffer. Their people have already suffered a lot for many decades.”

China is partly contributing to the global supply squeeze. For months, the world’s largest oil importer relied on its own crude stockpiles for nearly half of its daily consumption, providing some relief to oil markets. In recent weeks, however, it has resumed larger purchases from international suppliers, analysts said.

U.S. crude prices have jumped 19% during the past three weeks to trade near $101 a barrel as attacks in the Middle East multiply.

Iran has targeted oil tankers traveling through the Strait, even after Trump and his officials said several vessels had been escorted undetected through the waterway.

Houthi militants have recently launched attacks from Yemen against Saudi Arabian infrastructure and military sites. They also damaged the East-West pipeline, which extends from the Abqaiq oil field to Yanbu al-Bahr, a major Saudi port city on the Red Sea.

Trump has vowed to impose economic pressure on Iran and has ruled out sending ground troops. He has said he expects the war to last until the November midterm elections, but investors say they believe it will continue well beyond that point.

“That was the signal this is going to stretch on,” said Dan Pickering, founder of Pickering Energy Partners.

Diesel supplies are also tight because of refinery outages following conflicts in the Middle East and Russia. Demand for the fuel is expected to rise as farmers who use diesel-powered heavy equipment enter harvest season.

“Diesel has no easy solution,” Pickering said.

Trump has said Ukraine must halt strikes on Russia that endanger global diesel supplies.

In March, the CEOs of the three largest U.S. oil companies, ExxonMobil, Chevron and ConocoPhillips, warned Trump administration officials, including Burgum and Wright, that a prolonged closure of the Strait could lead to a shortage of refined products such as diesel.

Some executives have privately criticized Trump’s handling of the conflict.

At the conference Monday, Burgum rejected persistent speculation that the White House is seriously considering a temporary ban on U.S. exports of refined products such as diesel. He said the administration does not believe such a move would lower prices.

“We will do anything that helps the price at home,” Burgum said. “But we’re also going to be smart about it, and not just have some idea that if we stop exporting, that somehow magically is going to help the prices.”


General Mills Closes Missouri Pizza Crust Plant

General Mills will permanently close its pizza crust manufacturing facility in St. Charles, Missouri. This shutdown will result in the layoff of 163 employees, primarily production staff. The company had previously announced these closure plans in an SEC filing last October. The facility was acquired by General Mills in June 2022. This closure is part of a larger initiative to enhance supply chain competitiveness.

St. Charles, Missouri

https://www.foodbusinessnews.net/articles/30124-general-mills-set-to-shutter-pizza-crust-facility


Never-ending supply issues

People keep getting promoted and more leaders are added yet we can't consistently deliver products. Who is in charge of supply chain? How about we invest in some leadership there? How many reps have lined up evaluations or Go Live dates only to find out product X is on back-order? Marketing (who I'm sure would rather be doing actual marketing) sends out a laundry list of all the skus that aren't available with zero transparency as to why, vague/moving target recovery dates and substitute lists that are also on backorder. Gain/keep business is a challenge when 1/3 of my time is spent trying to find subs for procurement.


Bad Move (The Economist)

Microsoft’s gaming strategy has misfired badly

  • A supply-chain crisis for Xbox couldn’t have come at a worse time*

IT IS NOT yet the PayPal mafia, but the Instacart matriarchy is making its mark. Not long after Fidji Simo, ex-head of the online grocery store, became Sam Altman’s product-focused sidekick at OpenAI, Asha Sharma, Instacart’s former chief operating officer, became Satya Nadella’s Ms Fix-it at Microsoft Gaming. Groceries are a tricky, low-margin business. So is Xbox—and Ms Sharma has wasted no time in getting to work. On July 6th, less than five months after becoming the division’s boss, she launched what she called the biggest reset in its 25-year history.

https://www.economist.com/business/2026/07/08/microsofts-gaming-strategy-has-misfired-badly

Ms Sharma has gone about her overhaul with a candour that is rare in the mealy-mouthed world of big tech. Declaring that Microsoft’s gaming arm is “not healthy”, she announced that 3,200 employees would be axed over the next 12 months, and that up to five loss-making studios would be shed. Her diagnosis makes two things clear: first, Mr Nadella’s gaming strategy has misfired badly; second, the entire console industry is in a supply-chain crisis. No hard-core gamer herself, the battles ahead will test Ms Sharma’s mettle.

With Mr Nadella’s attention focused on the artificial-intelligence bo-m in recent years, Xbox has suffered from neglect. Under previous management, it sought to reduce its reliance on the Xbox console and focus on its multi-platform subscription service, called Game Pass, intending to become the “Netflix of gaming”. To fuel demand, Microsoft invested what insiders say was upwards of $20bn on games and studios, in addition to the $70bn-plus it spent buying Activision Blizzard, maker of “Call of Duty”, in 2023.

Alas, Game Pass, which was meant to have 77m members this year, has fewer than 30m. Meanwhile, the multi-platform approach has undermined Microsoft’s own console business by making content available on other platforms, such as Sony’s PlayStation, which kept its own games off Xbox. Microsoft’s quarterly gaming revenue has been in decline since last autumn. Xbox’s operating margins are a meagre 3%. It has been losing market share to Nintendo, another console-maker. Bureaucracy has ballooned; in parts of the company, Ms Sharma says, work passes through 14 layers of management. Just like a real-life Pac-Woman, she intends to chomp those down to as few as three.

Her strategy is bold. The year of lay-offs will be the biggest in Xbox’s history. Her disposal of studios will end Microsoft’s attempt to hoover up indie game-developers. Yet it is not all cost-cutting. Insiders say Ms Sharma intends to invest in “Minecraft”, a hit game that was used as a cash cow rather than a growth engine and has lost significant ground to Roblox, a stable of games that competes for youngsters’ attention. She also plans to double down on mobile gaming using untapped expertise in King, creator of “Candy Crush”, which was bought with Activision.

The trickiest part will be rescuing the console. When Ms Sharma took over in February she promised “the return of Xbox”. Sales of gaming hardware have long been in decline, but insiders say Ms Sharma considers Xbox users to be her core customers, spending far more on games and services than PC players.

Yet as Ms Sharma tries to win them back, the ground is moving under her feet. When she took control of the business, AI-related demand for memory chips and other components had already caused costs to surge across the consumer-electronics industry. Within her first 50 days, input costs rose by 50%, a source at the company says. All three console-makers have been forced to announce price increases at a time when growth in the industry (excluding China) is sluggish.

The component crunch will have long-term consequences. Microsoft had hoped to increase production of consoles to support the eagerly awaited release of the latest version of “Grand Theft Auto”, made by Take-Two, a listed studio, which is rumoured to have cost a staggering $2bn to develop. The supply constraints will make it harder to increase production of consoles to meet the expected demand.

In 2028 both Microsoft and Sony are expected to launch the next generation of devices, which could also be hampered by the supply-chain chaos. Piers Harding-Rolls of Ampere Analysis, a consultancy, says Microsoft may be hit harder, because Sony, as a consumer-electronics company, has stronger relationships with suppliers. On July 1st Sony said it would stop selling physical discs in 2028, a decision that Mr Harding-Rolls says was long in gestation but might help offset rising costs.

Some think Microsoft’s best response to both the strategic blunders and the hardware crisis would be to spin off the gaming business. Gil Luria of D.A. Davidson, an investment firm, reckons that the lumpiness of revenue as a result of seven-year console cycles is better suited to private-equity investors than to public ones.

There are still rich seams of potential growth within Xbox that Ms Sharma will hope to mine before a final decision about its future is made. But as Ben Thompson of Stratechery, a popular newsletter, puts it, “Sometimes it’s Game Over.” ■


What Changed At ExxonMobil After The Global Covid-19 Pandemic?

How COVID-19 Impacted Energy Companies

Source: Microsoft CoPilot Search

The COVID-19 pandemic had a profound and multifaceted impact on the global energy sector, affecting demand, supply chains, financial stability, and long-term energy transitions.

  1. Sharp Drop in Energy Demand
    Lockdowns and reduced economic activity caused global primary energy demand to fall by about 4% in 2020 compared to 2019 Statista. Transport fuel demand, especially in China, contracted sharply, with gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, and bunkers all declining CSIS. Even moderate growth in ethane and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) was not enough to prevent overall oil demand from flattening or contracting CSIS.

  2. Volatility and Price Crashes
    Oil prices plunged 50–80% in the first quarter of 2020, with WTI and Brent crude futures falling over 20% on average pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov. This volatility exposed companies to extreme financial risk, increasing insolvency threats pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov.

  3. Supply Chain Disruptions
    The pandemic disrupted global manufacturing and logistics, hitting renewable energy supply chains hard. China, a major producer of solar panels, wind turbine components, and lithium-ion batteries, faced lockdowns that halted production and shipping Johns Hopkins University. This caused delays or cancellations of clean energy projects for months or years Johns Hopkins University.

  4. Financial and Workforce Impacts
    Thousands of jobs were lost across the sector, and bankruptcy filings rose Statista. Workforce availability was reduced due to illness, quarantine, and remote work limitations, further slowing operations Johns Hopkins University.

  5. Energy Transition Setbacks
    The slowdown in renewables and infrastructure projects delayed climate goals. However, the crisis also highlighted the need for resilience, and some recovery efforts—like Europe’s €225 billion energy transition fund—aimed to accelerate decarbonization www.spglobal.com.

  6. Long-Term Structural Shifts
    COVID-19 reduced long-term global oil demand by 2.5 million barrels per day, but not enough to shift the projected peak oil demand date www.spglobal.com. Gas demand was hit harder than other fuels due to declining primary energy use, rising renewables, and coal stickiness www.spglobal.com.

  7. Recovery and Rebound
    By 2021, as restrictions eased and vaccination rates rose, energy demand began to recover and surpass pre-pandemic levels Statista. Some companies adapted by diversifying supply chains, investing in digitalization, and focusing on resilience.

In summary: COVID-19 caused a demand shock, severe price volatility, supply chain paralysis, and financial strain for energy companies. While the sector rebounded in 2021–2022, the pandemic accelerated supply chain awareness, reshaped energy demand patterns, and underscored the importance of resilience in the energy transition.


WK Kellogg Co. Closes Omaha Plant, Cuts 451 Jobs

WK Kellogg Co. is permanently closing its cereal facility in Omaha, Nebraska. This closure will eliminate 451 positions through phased layoffs. Initial job cuts are expected in July 2026, with the plant ceasing operations in August 2026. The company announced this move as part of a broader supply-chain modernization plan. Ferrero acquired WK Kellogg Co. in September 2025, though the closure plan predates this acquisition.

Omaha, Nebraska

https://www.thestreet.com/retail/kelloggs-breakfast-giant-shuts-down-plant-cuts-100s-of-workers


stock ↑ isn’t really about the engs.

or at least, not directly.

it’s about 100s of billions in capital investment,.. foundries, process tech, supply chains, equipment, capacity, political leverage, u name it - all of it. intel obvously cannot run without good engineers. that part is true. but the reason the market value has exploded is that everything around the engineers suddenly became much more valuable because of the tech cycle and geopolitics.

think of it this way imagine somene from the outside could take over everything the company owns except the people then hire a new workforce from scratch. it would probably take them ten years to make it work. hmmm.... maybe longer. but once they got there, they would be sitting on a money-printing machine.

i’m an engineer too, and i have a pretty high opinion of what we do. no false modesty there.

but at this valuation, i don’t think they’re looking at you and me. they’re looking at the machine.


Congress Sends Letter to Nike Re: Uyghur Genocide and Forced Labor Suppliers

US House of Representatives
SELECT COMMITTEE ON THE CHINESE COMMUNIST PARTY
548 Cannon House Office Building Washington, D.C. 20515
(202) 225-6002

May 2, 2023

Mr. John Donahoe
President, and Chief Executive Officer Nike, Inc.
One Bowerman Drive Beaverton, OR 97005

Dear Mr. Donahoe,

On March 23, 2023, the House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) held a hearing entitled, "The Chinese Communist Party's Ongoing Uyghur Genocide." At the hearing, we heard first-hand witness accounts about the CCP's concentration camps and expert testimony regarding the perpetration of genocide. We also received written testimony in which an expert assessed that "American companies are financing the state-sponsored forced labor programs in the Uyghur Region."1 We seek additional information regarding this matter.

The U.S. Department of State has determined that the CCP is committing genocide against Uyghurs and other minority groups in Xinjiang. 2 In response to the CCP's atrocities, Congress passed the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) with bipartisan support. On December 23, 2021, the UFLPA was signed into law. The UFLPA prohibits the "importation of any goods made with forced labor, including those goods mined, produced, or manufactured wholly or in part in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region."

  1. We received expert testimony which revealed that products made by Uyghurs in forced labor camps are still entering the United States. 4 One expert told the Select Committee that Nike is "sourcing garments made not only from cotton from the Uyghur Region but also viscose, lyocell, polyester, leather, and linen from the region."5 Continuing to import goods produced in part with

1 The Chinese Communist Party's Ongoing Uyghur Genocide: Hearing before the Select Comm. on Strategic Competition between the U.S. and CCP, 118 Cong. (Mar. 23, 2023) (Written Testimony ofNury Turkel) ("CCP's Uyghur Genocide Hearing").
2 Edward Wong & Chris Buckley, U.S. Says China's Repression of Uighurs Is 'Genocide', N.Y. TIMES (July 27,
2021).
3 Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, H.R. 6256, I 16th Cong. (2021).
4 CCP's Uyghur Genocide Hearing (Written Testimony ofNury Turkel).
5 Id; According to a Sheffield Hallam University study, Nike is at high risk of having Xinjiang cotton in its supply chain due to its relationship with international intermediary manufacturers and Chinese textile companies sourcing

the forced labor of Uyghurs potentially violates the UFLPA and creates the conditions in which the CCP is able to continue committing genocide.
We would like to offer Nike an opportunity to respond to these serious allegations and to provide information regarding its compliance with the UFLPA. We therefore request that you respond to the following questions by May 16, 2023:

  1. Do any garments imported into the United States by Nike contain inputs sourced from Xinjiang and/or inputs made with forced labor ofUyghurs?
  2. Please provide a detailed description of the steps Nike has taken since the UFLPA took effect to examine its supply chains with respect to forced labor risk in the manufacture of its products. How do these steps differ, if at all, from the methods utilized before the UFLPA took effect?
  3. Please provide a detailed description of the steps Nike has taken since the UFLPA took effect to ensure garments it sells that are made from cotton, viscose, lyocell, polyester, leather, and linen are not manufactured using forced labor by Uyghurs or other minority groups who are subjugated by the CCP.
  4. Please provide a detailed description of the steps Nike has taken to examine its other supply chains to ensure that other products it sells are not produced by forced labor undertaken by Uyghurs or other minority groups who are subjugated by the CCP.
  5. Do any of Nike's garment suppliers use fabric and/or yarn from any of the following corporations (including their subsidiaries): Jiangsu Lianfa Group, Luthai Textile, Huafu Fashion, Texhong Textile, or Weiqiao Textile?
  6. Is fabric and/or yarn made by any of the corporations referenced above used in the production of Nike clothing sold in the United States? If so, please list each corporation whose fabric and/or yarn is used in the manufacture of Nike clothing sold in the United States.
  7. If fabric and/or yarn from one of the corporations referenced above is used in the production of Nike clothing sold in the United States, what specific steps does Nike take to ensure that none of this material is made in, or contains cotton from, Xinjiang?
  8. Has Nike contractually obligated all its garment suppliers to ensure that no inputs from Xinjiang are used in the manufacture of its clothes sold in the United States? Please provide all relevant documents to support such obligations.

cotton and employing state-sponsored labor transfers from the Uyghur Region. Most of the Chinese textile companies identified in the study have subsidiaries in Xinjiang that have employed state-sponsored labor transfers. See, Laura T. Murphy et al., Laundering Cotton: How Xinjiang Cotton Is Obscured in International Supply Chains, SHEFFIELD HALLAM UNIVERSITY (Nov. 2021).

  1. What specific methods, other than mere written or verbal assurance from a garment supplier, does Nike use to verify that the supplier is not using inputs from Xinjiang?

I 0. What audit methods does Nike use to verify that suppliers in China-in and outside of Xinjiang-are not exploiting Uyghurs through state-sponsored labor transfers, given that workers in China cannot speak to auditors about forced labor without fear of government retaliation? Please provide all policies, guidelines, requirements, reviews, assessments, analyses, audits, PowerPoint or other presentations, or other documents that describe, govern, implement, or report conduct, processes, or results (without regard to the title of a given document) that are relevant to the conduct of such audits, as well as copies of any communications pertaining to any incident involving actual, alleged, or anticipated noncompliance with the UFLPA.

  1. Has Nike conclusively identified every supplier of fabric, cotton, and yarn in its global supply chain for products sold in the United States? If yes, please provide documents and evidence to substantiate Nike's conclusive identification of such fabric, cotton, and yarn suppliers, including any documents evidencing Nike's methodology with respect to this determination. If not, please provide a detailed explanation of how Nike assesses whether its clothing imports comply with the UFLPA, including any documents describing Nike's methodology with respect to such assessments.
  2. Does Nike allow cotton and/or other inputs produced in Xinjiang to be used in the manufacture of Nike clothing sold in markets outside of North America?

  3. In 2020, reporting revealed that hundreds of Uyghur laborers worked in a factory that manufactures 8 million pairs ofNikes each year.6 Nike claims to have verified that this factory-owned by a leading Nike Supplier, TKG Taekwang-no longer uses Uyghur forced labor. Given its track record of using forced labor, how did Nike verify that TKG Taekwang no longer uses forced labor? And why does Nike still consider TKG Taekwang to be a suitable business partner?

  4. Please provide a detailed description of the steps Nike is taking to examine and monitor its supply chains on an ongoing basis. Please provide all policies, guidelines, requirements, reviews, assessments, analyses, audits, PowerPoint or other presentations, or other documents (without regard to the title of a given document) that describe, govern, implement, or report conduct, processes, or results relevant to the conduct of such examination and monitoring.

  5. Please provide a detailed description of your audit and compliance plan(s), and the steps taken thus far to implement controls to ensure that Nike products are not produced by forced labor and that all Nike products are obtained and sold in compliance with the requirements of the UFLPA. Please provide all policies, guidelines, requirements, reviews, assessments, analyses, audits, PowerPoint or other presentations, or other documents (without regard to the title of a given document) that describe, govern,

6 Anna Fifield, China compels Uighurs to work in shoefacto,y that supplies Nike, WASH. POST (Feb. 29, 2020).

implement, or report conduct, processes, or results relevant to Nike's audit and compliance plan(s).

The House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party has broad authority to "investigate and submit policy recommendations on the status of the Chinese Communist Party's economic, technological, and security progress and its competition with the United States" under H. Res. 11. Upon your receipt of this letter, please maintain and preserve all hard copy and electronic documents, including electronic communications, related to the subject matter of these questions.

To make arrangements to deliver a response, please contact Select Committee majority and minority staff at (202) 226-9678 and (202) 225-2489, respectively.

Thank you for your attention to this important matter and prompt reply.

Sincerely,

-
Mike Gallagher
Chairman

Ranking Member


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