Established at the turn of the new century (in 2000) in Indonesia, Asmara has today grown into a global sourcing organization in the areas of apparel as well as home products. The buying office has its sourcing locations in India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Hong Kong, Vietnam, China, Turkey, UK, Germany and the US. The original product line for the buying office was apparels which were further expanded to include accessories as well as home products.
Having an impressive list of buyers like – Abercrombie & Fitch, Billabong, Calvin Klein, Casamoda, Hugo Boss, Tom Tailor, Animal, Benetton to mention a few; the buying office recently inducted Ahmed Zaidi as Manager Merchandising from February 2012; Ahmed is heading the Abercrombie & Fitch account. Prior to joining Asmara, Ahmed was working with Apparel United as Head AEO Mens, 77 Kids and Boston Proper.
Ahmed draws his experience as an apparel and textile sourcing specialist with substantial experience in South Asia, Far East and Egypt markets. His primary focus has been on the supply chain management with a keen eye on costs and mapping the right resources to existing requirements.
His stint with GAP from 2004 to 2010 gave him exposure to vendor and sourcing development of the Egyptian market. He was also involved in cost negotiations and product development evaluation. Along with meeting budgetary and sales targets through cost reductions in all areas involved in buying process, consistently achieving and surpassing key performance indicators.
The question “Who started Asmara?” is often asked and the answer given is that Asmara was created with the passion of multiple professional partners who gave up their successful careers to embrace a new idea. It was their passion which is still the driving force behind Asmara.
