Pandemic has taught garment factories lots of lessons…Diversifying into new product categories has been one such lesson. Few of the Bangladesh’s resilient factories have acted on it and gained extensive exposure. Green Smart Shirts Limited (GSSL) is one such factory. Team Apparel Resources met Fateh Ul Islam, Managing Director, GSSL recently in Dhaka and got to know how he and his teams played a part in major turnaround of the company in last two-and-a-half years! The ambitious company, with all its efforts, clocked US $ 37 million turnover during FY ’21 and is now targeting to achieve US $ 50 million revenues which seems realistic and very much achievable. The company reports increasing business with existing customers as well as it is adding new US-based brands Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger and many others in its portfolio.
- Adding womenswear in portfolio was a game changer…
During COVID-19, just like all others, our men’s shirt business was not doing so well for obvious reasons as people were staying at homes and that prompted us to add ladieswear in our portfolio. There are not too many factories in Bangladesh producing high-fashion ladies wear made up of fancy fabrics, which are soft to touch, delicate and require specialised skills to produce. Hence we started the high-fashion womenswear and the strategy paid off. And now our existing customers too have added some womenswear products in their product lines and that has benefited us too.
As a result, we have been utilising 100 per cent of capacities (30 sewing lines) for last two years, and are now aiming to produce 10 million pieces of garments a year and increasing efficiencies to accommodate 40,000 pieces/day in the existing sewing lines as orders are continuously pouring in. We are targeting an average unit price of US $ 5 that will help us clock US $ 50 million revenues by the end of FY ’22.
Though adding womenswear proved to be a game changer for us, there are instances where womenswear retailers also started placing their menswear orders in our factory. American Eagle is one such example. Today, our capacities are equally divided in men’s and women’s apparels.
- Requisites to be an effective ladieswear manufacturer in high-fashion category
While working on the first order of Calvin Klein dresses, I was amazed to see the quality output and I wondered ‘if we did it’! The first requisite is the mindset as the factory should be geared up to say – I can do it. Later we added Tommy Hilfiger in our clientele. The entire process started with the hiring of technical people who were smart enough to handle high-end ladies garments sewing lines. The second critical factor, I believe, is understanding and processing the right fabric which is the ‘trump card’ in this business. We roamed the world to find right fabrics. Then we hired designers to pitch into design aspects and set-up two new-age design studios in Hong Kong and UK to work in collaboration with buyers. This step also opened more horizons for us to set ourselves as a preferred high-fashion ladieswear manufacturer for our new clients.
Since we already had a good infrastructure in terms of machinery, we just had to add some high-quality folders and attachments to handle the soft fabrics. Now that we are completely booked and are being fed with continuous orders, we have planned to come up with 15 new sewing lines very soon to build additional capacities of around 300,000 pieces per month. This will even help us accommodate more capacities from our existing customers.
- Prices are still a challenge but that’s inevitable and one has to cope with it…
Price is a challenge for every buyer nowadays including the ones who are placing high-fashion orders. The first thing they see in a factory is CM (Cut-to-Make) cost, but that’s just a small percentage of total FOB prices. If a garment worth US $ 10 is traded, 70 per cent cost today is contributed by fabrics and other raw materials. Buyers looking at CM cost shouldn’t be a criteria at all while negotiating unit prices of a garment item but that’s harsh reality.
