With a 30 per cent market share in the Premium segment, American & Efird (Bangladesh) or A&E as it is commonly referred to, is an established entity in Bangladesh now looking forward to playing a deeper role in educating the industry on core areas like sustainability, human resource development towards manufacturing excellence, so as to move ahead in its objective to ‘create a better world through responsible corporate actions, an environmentally protective stance, and active contribution to the communities in which it operates’… Even as the industry struggles to find solutions to be competitive, A&E has shaped its strategy to support the industry. “Cost factors being the major concern of every industry player in the apparel business today, it is only when we become efficient that we will become cost-effective while maintaining the quality standards,” says Angelo Leanage, Managing Director (Bangladesh), explaining the guiding force behind the company’s initiatives to educate the industry.
n order to achieve its objectives, A&E has partnered with BGMEA University of Fashion & Technology (BUFT) and signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to setup a state-of-the-art “Design Studio” and “Display Centre”. The main objective behind this initiative is to provide the final year students a cutting edge design studio where the students will learn and work with different fabrics, threads, stitches, etc. A&E is also providing a display centre which shall be open for all the visitors. Furthermore, the company will conduct regular technical seminars to enlighten the students more about the design and development. Finally, A&E will also award the best performing student of the year at the Annual Graduation Ceremony.
The company is also targeting to synergize with many more garment factories, universities and design studios, to support the industry in spreading knowledge and education. “By developing designers and awarding good students the opportunities to get trained at our design centres internationally, we are playing our role in developing the industry,” elaborates Angelo. The company strongly believes that design studios are the future of the country and soon every manufacturer would require one of its own. Therefore, enhancing the skills of students at this stage would help the company to produce future designers who will tomorrow go into the industry and might also encourage deeper association with A&E.
[bleft]By developing designers and awarding good students the opportunities to get trained at our design centres internationally, we are playing our role in developing the industry. A&E strongly believes that design studios are the future of the country and soon every manufacturer would require one of its own. [/bleft]
As an ongoing initiative, the company is conducting seminars on manufacturing excellence for the industry, covering topics like quality control and manufacturing, involving employees at the production floors, quality control departments and buying offices. A recently conducted two-day session saw participation of 225 industry-informed professionals, while another seminar in association with leading international retailer Kohls, is already in the pipeline. A&E is also going to present a few seminars jointly with Juki and Schmetz Needles, for better seams and constructions.
“Our humane initiatives have positioned us as the top player in the market, making the top garment makers vying to work with us. These small and big interventions have also made the company a favourite with premium brands with the share of value brand products being only 10 per cent of our total sales,” said Angelo. Waste Management is the key focus for cost-effectiveness and the company has partnered with CIPL, and started work with Shanta Group in Dhaka and Youngone and MAS Holdings in Chittagong.
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- Our humane initiatives have positioned us as the top player in the market, making the top garment makers vying to work with us. These small and big interventions have also made the company a favourite with premium brands with the share of value brand products being only 10 per cent of our total sales.
- With a manufacturing unit in Gazipur, the group is going in for a huge expansion, increasing capacities by 20 to 30 per cent. Also the company is getting into specialty products for the non apparel industry [/bleft]
Another area that A&E is minutely looking at is building Human Resource in the country with a lot of training initiates in the pipeline. Considering the fact that there is not enough skilled middle management in Bangladesh as of now, even within their company Angelo claims that they are taking steps to replace expats with local talent. “Bangladesh is lacking in HR Management and we believe that people are assets for any organization and they should be trained to excel and grow. There is talent here, it’s just about getting the right people and training them better to put them on the right path,” he added.
With a manufacturing unit in Gazipur, the group is going in for a huge expansion, increasing capacities by 20 to 30 per cent. Also the company is getting into specialty products for the non apparel industry, like the shoes industry which is growing rapidly in Bangladesh. Even though the product is already present in their global portfolio of products, a new manufacturing base is planned to be setup locally in the country with investments to be made on additional machines by August this year. The group already has healthy competition in the market through Coats, and entering the segment now is Amann Group as well, but they are not unduly worried.“We are very confident of our space and plan to touch a turnover of about US $ 25 million this year, which shows a growth of 30 to 40 per cent from last year,” concludes a satisfied Angelo.
