The Managing Director of Bangladesh’s renowned Bitopi Group, Miran Ali is just not an entrepreneur or a business leader; he is a multifarious personality, who dons a multitude of hats, with equal aplomb.
Son of veteran politician and acclaimed businessman Reza Ali, who started Bitopi in 1968, Miran as an entrepreneur today heads the multi-interest business conglomerate, which started its journey as an advertising agency, only to enter into the new and young arena of readymade garments with Misami Garments in the days to come and subsequently expanded outside of apparel manufacturing and advertising to event management, fisheries and agro sectors, employing a workforce of 18,000 today.
| From the global perspective, I would like to think a China-plus move is shaping up strongly, for some time now. Almost everyone is now looking at alternatives and the big beneficiaries of this have been countries like Indonesia, India, Vietnam, Pakistan, Turkey, Morocco and Bangladesh. Miran Ali |
Misami Garments Ltd., is the first apparel manufacturing unit established by Bitopi Group way back in 1984. It is spread over 80,000 sq.ft. area in Mirpur. Today this unit works as the head office, product development studio and sampling section for the Bitopi Group.
Bitopi’s Tarasima Apparels Ltd., is one of the highest-rated green factories as far as existing structures are concerned and is a leading maker of denim and non-denim bottoms, churning out 2.5 million pieces/month (approximately) from its 5,00,000 sq.ft. facility.
Its other manufacturing unit – Remi Holdings Ltd. (the highest-rated LEED platinum green factory in the world), was established in 2015 in the Adamjee EPZ, spread over 250,000 sq.ft. area and specialises in bottoms with a capacity to produce 4,50,000 pieces per month.
| Son of veteran politician and acclaimed businessman Reza Ali, who started Bitopi in 1968, Miran as an entrepreneur today heads the multi-interest business conglomerate, which started its journey as an advertising agency, only to enter into the new and young arena of readymade garments with Misami Garments in the days to come and subsequently expanded outside of apparel manufacturing and advertising. |
Its fourth and the latest unit, Baridhi Garments Ltd., is located in the Comilla EPZ, which started operations in 2015. Spread over an area of 2,05,000 sq.ft., Baridhi Garments specialises in ‘seam sealing’ outdoor jackets, padded and quilted jackets and has a capacity to produce 5,25,000 pieces of jackets, outerwear and swimsuit per month.
Besides being a successful entrepreneur, Miran Ali has also made his mark as the Vice-President of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), the apex garment makers’ body in the country.
That’s not all! He has also earned applause from all quarters as the astute spokesperson of the much-acclaimed Sustainable Terms and Trade Initiative (STTI), an entity of 15 industry bodies from 11 countries.
Mostly on the move to represent STTI and BGMEA at global events and forums, Miran prefers to spend the remaining whatever time he gets towards Bitopi’s growth and development.
However, despite his busy schedule, Miran was gracious enough to squeeze some time out to meet Team Apparel Resources (AR) recently, as he shared his views and thoughts on a diverse range of issues, in a brief yet thought-provoking interaction.
Here are the excerpts.
AR: Do you think there is any change in buyers’ sourcing strategy of late?
Miran Ali: From the global perspective, I would like to think a China-plus move is shaping up strongly, for some time now.
Almost everyone is now looking at alternatives and the big beneficiaries of this have been countries like Indonesia, India, Vietnam, Pakistan, Turkey, Morocco and Bangladesh. Turkey in particular has gained a lot, thanks to it being close to the market (Europe) as the concept of nearshoring also continues to gather pace.
As far as Morocco is concerned, it is a very small industry but can still accommodate some shifting business.
Similarly, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Vietnam are benefiting from this shift in sourcing paradigm. Pakistan has a specialisation in certain product categories and is excelling in those, which also holds true for India.
In comparison, Vietnam and Bangladesh are quite versatile in terms of capacities and product offerings and also Indonesia to a great extent. However, after China, the two principal contenders continue to be Bangladesh and Vietnam and the competition between the two is neck to neck and both countries I feel can accommodate significant quantities of shifting orders.
Contrary to the other Asian manufacturing destinations, Myanmar, despite all its promise, seems to have largely fallen out of the Western sourcing radar due to reasons that are well known to all by now.
However, I believe Myanmar is going to turn into a sourcing hub for the far eastern countries like China, Korea and Japan, all of which have close relations with it.
AR: Irrespective of the business shift, Bangladesh’s export performance is little off colour lately. What could be the reason(s)?
Miran Ali: There are several reasons. To start with, for most of the business in Russia done by the Western retailers, they would source from Bangladesh which has dried up completely after the western brands decided to leave Russia in mass. And until the Russia-Ukraine war is over, there’s not much hope on that front.
In the meantime, we are also witnessing a change in buying patterns in two of our main markets – United States and Europe. In the United States, it’s more of an inflationary challenge as the cost of living has gone up significantly, which is reflected in the buying habits of the end users.
| Misami Garments Ltd., is the first apparel manufacturing unit established by Bitopi Group way back in 1984. It is spread over 80,000 sq.ft. area in Mirpur. Today this unit works as the head office, product development studio and sampling section for the Bitopi Group. |
Apart from issues with inflation, in Europe, the retail landscape seems to have undergone a complete change. Even though orders are coming in from European buyers but those are not mass orders but rather smaller quantities.
But as we are becoming more flexible to take in those orders, we are now also seeing a lot many smaller brands, with limited quantity requirements, starting to come into Bangladesh now, which earlier wasn’t a very economical proposition for them.
This is one very encouraging development.
AR: In the given scenario, does it not make sense to focus more on non-traditional markets?
Miran Ali: We are already very successfully catering to some of the non-traditional markets. And the latest export figures are a testimony to it. Bangladesh’s apparel exports to non-traditional markets grew by 32.74 per cent year-on-year to about US $ 7.70 billion in the first 11 months of the current fiscal.
Apparel exports to Japan, Australia, India, Korea and China have recorded 46 per cent to 26 per cent growth in the July-May period (of the fiscal 2022-23). Japan has imported about US $ 1.5 billion worth of apparel from Bangladesh, while shipments to Australia surpassed US $ 1 billion, registering growth of 45.80 per cent and 41.82 per cent respectively even if export to the Indian market is also close to the US $ 1 billion mark with 46.44 per cent growth, compared to that of US $ 647.27 million in the same period of the previous fiscal year.
Apparel exports to Korea and China also witnessed 28.85 per cent and 26.25 per cent increase respectively.
Australia, in particular, has been a rapidly growing market from our perspective while the other one is India. Earlier, Russia was coming up very strongly as an apparel export destination but for the war (before the war, apparel export went up to almost US $ 750 million there).
At the same time, I would also like to underline that despite the potential, we are facing some challenges in some of the non-traditional destinations. Taxes are too high in Brazil and South Africa, both of which again hold a lot of promise from Bangladesh’s point of view.
I would thus like to reiterate that United States, Europe and Great Britain will continue to hold their sway for Bangladesh garment makers going forward, no matter the strong emergence of the non-traditional markets.
AR: Europe, in particular, is coming up with some strict legislations pertaining to sustainability. What could be their ramifications for Bangladesh?
Miran Ali: The EU Parliament is coming up with an avalanche of legislations. There’s one on the carbon impact of clothing. Then there’s something on circularity, followed by supply chain transparency and so on.
The legislation on supply chain transparency in particular will benefit Bangladesh, I feel. Firstly, Bangladesh garment makers are working directly with the brands and buyers and as such, we are better placed to report on our supply chain transparency.
Also, Bangladesh today holds the distinction of having the highest number of green factories globally, which is a testament to our sustainability endeavours; add to it the efforts being put in by the RMG Sustainability Council (RSC), to drive the factories towards a higher degree of sustainability and transparency. As a matter of fact, transparency is a proposition by default for factories that are under the RSC and most BGMEA members are part of the RSC today.
| The fourth and the latest unit, Baridhi Garments Ltd., is located in the Comilla EPZ, which started operations in 2015. Spread over an area of 2,05,000 sq.ft., Baridhi Garments specialises in ‘seam sealing’ outdoor jackets, padded and quilted jackets and has a capacity to produce 5,25,000 pieces of jackets, outerwear and swimsuit per month. |
Keeping the above in view, Bangladesh will not have much of an issue with EU legislations on sustainability overall, however, carbon footprint is something that’s going to be affecting the overall industry and supply chain. I think the main effect of that is going to be that buyers will have to start planning better and transport less by air. Ultimately flying a garment halfway around the world is not something sustainable, from both economic and environmental viewpoints.
AR: LDC graduation is around the corner while general elections are also scheduled to be held soon. Could these have any implications for the industry’s growth?
Miran Ali: The general election will be held sometime end of this year or early next year. But this will not have any disruptive effect on our business platform; I don’t see any issue with that at all. What I do see, however, is in such a situation, investors are mostly on a wait-and-watch mode, which means FDI could slow down a bit.
As to the LDC graduation, I would like to add, we will have a three-year transition window, which means we will effectively have the GSP facility until 2029, provided we make the transition in 2026.
Also, I am pretty much hopeful that the EU, considering the importance of the GSP for the competitiveness of the industry as well as business competency of the brands and retailers that they source from, will offer some sort of waiver. And even if it does not happen, I am still very much hopeful and confident that Bangladesh will continue to prosper and excel as our industry is a very resilient business sector.
AR: Long dependent on basic product categories and mostly cotton-based, is the industry looking to move up the value chain now even as it builds production flexibility to entertain smaller orders, as you said?
Miran Ali: Garment makers here understand that dwelling on basic and cotton-based products doesn’t make much of a business sense and with more and more shifting business coming in from China, garment makers are making a conscious effort to move up the value chain. Today, you will find a lot of outerwear, workwear manufacturers, sports and lingerie makers in Bangladesh, which wasn’t the case earlier.
And now as MMF-based garments continue to gain in prominence, I see more and more industry players moving towards making MMF-based offerings keeping with which, the business will realign somewhat even though denim and cotton-based garments will also continue to grow.
| We are also witnessing a change in buying patterns in two of our main markets – United States and Europe. In the United States, it’s more of an inflationary challenge as the cost of living has gone up significantly, which is reflected in the buying habits of the end users. Miran Ali |
AR: Bangladesh has achieved several milestones over the years. What’s next?
Miran Ali: I think the next stage will be to have a presence across the supplier base. Talk about a big Chinese factory and it will have existence across manufacturing destinations, whether in Vietnam, China and Bangladesh or Africa. Similarly, for many big Sri Lankan facilities, they have a regional presence at least even if not across manufacturing destinations.
We have in Bangladesh, several billion-dollar (turnover) factories, but without presence across manufacturing destinations. Even though some tried to set up units in Ethiopia, somehow, that endeavour didn’t work out.
I think now the time has come to spread our wings beyond Bangladesh as manufacturers and not as exporters only if we intend to grow and dominate in apparel manufacturing in the coming days.
