The buying venture of The Asrotex Group – Asrotex Fashions – established three years ago, is now one of the focus growth engines of the Group. Speaking to Apparel Online, KB Mamoor, Director, Asrotex Group and now the Managing Director, Asro Fashions Ltd., speaks on the transition… Established in 1995, Asrotex Group is an integrated knitwear manufacturer and exporter having three units for garment manufacturing with 72 production lines, and working for retailers and brands like H&M, Zara, Brice, Primark, Sainsbury, Jockey, Walmart, and Kmart.
Still considered as a baby of the Group, the buying operation has a turnover of around US $ 15 million last year (US $ 7.5 million coming from orders placed to outside companies), while the annual turnover of the Group from exports is over US $ 100 million. Currently, sourcing for buyers from France, like Brice, Etam and Jules, which is the company’s stronghold, along with a few Scandinavian buyers, Asro Fashions is looking to leverage its network created from exports to enhance the buying operations. “Even though our reach as a buying house may be limited, as a garmenting group we cover almost all of Europe along with buyers from Australia, Japan and China. That makes reaching out to new buyers easy for us. Currently we are working on developing some German, Italian and UK buyers,” avers Mamoor. The company has also received queries from Indian retailers/brands, and is presently completing an order for Salman Khan’s ‘Being Human’ campaign.
Fully aware that though Bangladesh is a well established base for garment manufacturing, the challenges of compliance could rock the cartwheel, Asro Fashions leaves no stone unturned in ensuring that adequate compliance standards are being followed by its vendors and also at its own units. “The buyers have become more stringent and basic safety compliance has become mandatory. Most of the factories we are working with are compliant, yet whenever we choose a new vendor, we clearly convey the requirement of the buyer. The buyers usually send their independent teams to evaluate the factories and suggest necessary changes,” says Mamoor.
He further shares an example from his own unit. “One of our three units was audited by the buyers, wherein they found the size of the reservoir to be small. So we are increasing the reservoir capacity at additional cost, besides creating more space for social facilities like play grounds, dining rooms, and bigger stairs.” Mamoor admits that the cost of these changes has to be borne by the manufacturer in most cases. With its corporate office in Dhaka and manufacturing premises spread out to Gazipur and Narayanganj, the Group is certified by Oeko-Tex, ISO 9001:2008, SEDAX and WRAP Gold, amongst many others.
According to Mamoor, compliance is not the only threat to the competitiveness of the Bangladesh garment industry; the other emerging nemesis is the increasing wages. With minimum wage for operators increasing, the advantage that Bangladesh has enjoyed over China and India becomes arguable. “Buyers are going to China and India for highly value-added products, while Bangladesh is still the preferred location for basic items, though taking toddler steps in value addition. So there is a clear demarcation in the mind of the buyer, based on his target market, yet, we cannot be complacent and have to take action to counter the rising wage with productivity improvement and wastage control. Automation is also an option, but the human factor in running a garment factory can only be minimized so much,” reasons Mamoor.
The manufacturing arm of the Asrotex Group is running 2,100 sewing machines and 102 knitting machines, employing 8,200 workers to produce about 1,33,000 pieces of knit garments per month. Producing all types of knit garments, for all market segments, covering ladies, men, kids, newborns and plus sizes, the company claims expertise in tops, bottoms, and dresses in casual, fashion and active category.
Asrotex Group is constantly adapting and venturing into unchartered territories. Apart from the aforementioned business, the Group also has a software company which is developing an ERP for the textile sector, an indigenous solution to compete with the foreign giants like SAP. Mamoor also plans to start denim/bottom manufacturing factory within 3 years, apart from a green factory for knits that is planned for construction on the Chittagong road.
