Just after noon on November 1, the chairman of the company that owned China Top Industries, a shoe factory in Dongguan, China, made a surprise announcement to his assembled workers: the factory was closing, effective immediately. Then he climbed the wall surrounding the factory and fled, leaving behind a mountain of bad debts.
The closure shocked almost everyone, from the 2,000 employees who had arrived that morning thinking their jobs were secure to China Top’s American customers, who were left with a sudden, gaping hole in their supply chain.
But in far away New York City, one person saw it coming: Josh Green, co-founder and CEO of Panjiva, a startup that provides analysis on overseas suppliers for the apparel industry. “On October first, according to our data, China Top had had a drop-off in output,” Green said. “So we had a good indicator a full month ahead.”
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