LAHORE WOVEN GARMENTS CONSORTIUM (LGC) Javed Ghani Anjum Fayyaz In October 2005 Jawwad Chaudhry, Director Musterhaft and Chairman LGC, was reflecting upon the performance benefits and sustainability of the Lahore Garments Consortium (LGC) Guarantee Limited. LGC consisted on eight woven garment manu- factures and exporters. The CEOs of Musterhaft and Cotton Web were two particularly active members of LGC. Members of the consortium benefitted from joint purchases, joint skill development and joint marketing. Variations in the size of the firms in terms of number of machines, employees, product quality and target markets were some of the factors influencing the ability to develop consensus and a shared vision among consortium members. Keywords: Consortium, networking, trust building, diversification, clustering INTRODUCTION This case, set in 2005, details the benefits and challenges of managing a consortium of eight garment manufacturers and exporters, working on product and market development for network members. The group wanted to brand Lahore and the consortium in the international markets through individual and joint capacity building. While the members of the consortium benefitted from joint purchanses, joint skill development and joint marketing, they realized that it was hard to create a shared vision among consortium members as there was variation in the size of the companies in terms of varying degrees of product quality, number of machines, employees, and target markets. THE TEXTILE SECTOR IN PAKISTAN In 2005, the textile sector in Pakistan contributed 67 per cent to exports and 35 per cent to the total manufacturing employment. Pakistan being a major cotton textile producer has enjoyed a market share of 30 per cent of the world yarn trade and 8 per cent of cotton cloth with a GDP contribution of 9 per cent (Economic Survey of Pakistan 2005). The total exports of textile products were almost US$ 8.181 billion in 2003–04 in com- parison to US$ 7.459 billion in 2002–03, registering an increase of 9.7 per cent. Yarn export ASIAN JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT CASES, 4(1), 2007: 65–86 SAGE PUBLICATIONS LOS ANGELES/LONDON/NEW DELHI/SINGAPORE DOI: 10.1177/097282010600400106