The Fashion Jewelry & Accessories Trade Association will join the Fashion Accessories Shippers Association as part of Gemini Shippers Group.
The Fashion Jewelry & Accessories Trade Association (FJATA) and Fashion Accessories Shippers Association (FASA) said they will merge operations.
FJATA, which is a trade association, but not a shippers’ association, will join FASA and Gemini Shippers Association as an independent organization within Gemini Shippers Group, one of the country’s largest shippers’ associations.
Shippers associations are buying cooperatives for shippers that help companies obtain better freight rates and other services that they might not be able to negotiate on their own.
“FJATA will be able to leverage the back-office operations and resources of Gemini Shippers Group, allowing for expanding services for the FJATA membership,” said Brent Cleaveland, executive director of FJATA. “We also hope to introduce FJATA to the members of Gemini Shippers Association and FASA, many of whom can benefit from the valuable service FJATA provides.”
FJATA will operate both from its current offices in Wickford, R.I., as well as New York, where Gemini and FASA are based.
FASA, out of which Gemini grew, is more than a century old and was founded as an organization representing handbag manufacturers. In the 1970s it expanded from handbags to include all fashion accessories. In the mid 1980s, after the passing of the U.S. Shipping Act of 1984, it expanded its focus to create a shippers’ association and later created Gemini, which includes companies in many industries in addition to fashion accessories, including luggage, footwear, promotional items, giftware, office supplies, apparel, electronics, plumbing supplies, hard goods and outdoor/sporting goods.
Sara Mayes, president and chief executive officer of Gemini, said Cleaveland “is a leading expert in various regulatory frameworks that affect the accessories and jewelry industry and he has a long track record of working with state and federal regulators to help shape reasonable policies for the benefit of the jewelry and accessories industry.” For example, FJATA says it represented the industry in Proposition 65 negotiations codified in the California Metal Containing Jewelry law, created a supplier code of conduct on how companies should treat workers and the environment and worked with other associations to develop a “conflict mineral” resource center.
“Our work on safety and compliance includes chairing of the ASTM jewelry committee and the development of the FJATA corporate social responsibility audit protocol,” FJATA added, pointing out that it works with the Consumer Product Safety Commission and Customs and Border Protection on favorable importing procedures and is “the leading trade association working on worldwide harmonization issues.”
Kenneth O’Brien, the chief operating officer of Gemini, said that there is relatively little overlap between the membership of Gemini/FASA and FJATA and opportunities for synergy between the two groups
FJATA has over 100 members, which he said include fashion accessory companies that wholesale, specialized retailers and department stores with international supply chains that may benefit from the shipping services that Gemini/FASA offers.
At the same time, he said FJATA legislative expertise and experience setting up corporate social responsibility audits could be useful to the members of Gemini/FASA.
Gemini is best known for securing ocean and intermodal contracts for full-container-load (FCL) shipments , but O’Brien says FJATA members are heavier users of less-than-container-load (LCL) and air transport.
Gemini does arrange air, LCL and drayage for shippers and he said the merger “gives us an opportunity to see where we can help” the FJATA members. “We’ve been trying to build out those competencies and so this will give a reason to grow harder in LCL and air than we have in the past and we will try to accelerate it.”
Fashion associations for shippers to merge
