The expanding garment industry of Bangladesh constantly requires well established accessory manufacturers in order to supply a quality product range to its buyers. Among the accessories required in a garment, a zipper is of essential need for both functional and aesthetic reasons. In Bangladesh, 25% to 30% of the zippers are still imported from countries like China, adding to the potential for the zipper manufacturers to enter the market. Taking a cue from this, Korea based HHH Zipper grabbed the opportunity and initiated their operations in Bangladesh in 1991 exporting a composite range of coil, nylon, plastic, metal and invisible zippers from its Chittagong-based manufacturing facility.
Today, HHH Zipper is an established player in the buyer nominated market as the 2nd largest zipper manufacturer in the country, as claimed by the company. The growth projectile of HHH Zipper has been greatly enhanced by its parent Korean company with the same name, a leader in zipper manufacturing with production facilities in Vietnam and China besides Bangladesh. Team Apparel Online recently met Yeoung Ro Yoon, Director; Ali Akram, Deputy General Manager; and Md. Shamsul Huda, Assistant General Manager at their respective offices in Chittagong and Dhaka for an insight into the vibrant industry.
Targeting the fast growing bottom wear market, HHH Zipper is gradually increasing its business in the country. Yoon confirms that nominated business in Bangladesh is growing very fast with retailers and brands like Walmart, K-mart Target, Oxford, Amerex and Sears from the US, and C&A, H&M Primark, Tesco, Okaidi, Lindex and Regatta from Europe. “Almost all brands that are offering bottoms are using our products to differentiate and enhance quality,” says Yoon proudly.
With established manufacturing units exclusively in Asia – Vietnam, China, Korea and Bangladesh – the company sourcing all raw materials from South Korea while maintaining quality standards, is geared to feed zipper requirements anywhere in the world. To take advantage of each factory’s location, production has been allocated as per the specific requirements of the manufacturing base. Since Bangladesh is strong in bottoms, consequently the Chittagong-based facility is concentrating on zippers for this category, and if a company manufacturing casual outerwear jackets in Bangladesh requires bigger size zippers like number 7, 8 and 10, then it is met through the manufacturing units in Vietnam, Korea or China, which are manufacturing such sizes. Huda firmly believes that being in the business of accessory, the response time actually defines the success of the company. “Once we receive the orders, we send it to the factory for feedback, which comes back the very next day with the delivery time clearly mentioned; so there is no ambiguity. Usually it takes only 2-3 weeks to deliver to the customer all because we have a factory in Chittagong,” shares Huda.
The amalgamation of European-American quality standards and Korean technology gives the company a distinct edge over the other zipper manufacturers/suppliers in Bangladesh. The company has also invested in DTM (Dye-to-Match) machines to help reduce the time and give further boost to get bulk orders. HHH gives the DTM within 2-3 days because of the smaller numbers per machine that they are doing.
Quality is non-debatable and no compromises are made. “Being an OEKOTEX and ISO-9001 certified company, we have a dedicated quality control and testing team who randomly picks and checks the zippers keeping at par with US and European quality standards,” shares Akram, who claims that the company provides all the three criteria of quality, delivery and after-sales service to be a preferred supplier for any garment manufacturer.
One of the biggest areas of conflict with the industry is the ‘rejection’ rate which is directly or indirectly dependent on the automation. “We have automated and semi-automated machines both, so there are few rejections. Yet, whenever we get a complaint about the quality/technical issue, we investigate the reasons and give comprehensive report suggesting solutions,” says Akram.
Run mostly by Bangladeshi nationals at all levels of operations, right from senior to mid-level management, HHH Zipper gives extensive training to local managers and operators to develop local people, so as to take bigger responsibilities. Yoon, thinks that this local connect is very important in engaging the workers that in turn ensures better retention and more productivity. Training is a major focus for the company which has a special training centre where operators are trained on a regular basis vis-à-vis how to sew a zipper to get better results. Attaching zipper teeth with the fabric requires very technical skill, because if the needle is very close to the teeth it may hit hard on the teeth causing damage, so certain precautions and special training is required. Besides this, the company conducts regular workshops for workers on the working and handling of the machine. “We invite buyers/merchandisers to visit our factory to know about the zipper production process and also arrange for small workshops,” informs Yoon.
Thriving on the fact that Bangladesh market is going to grow over the next few years, HHH Zipper is very satisfied with the way the company has increased its footprints in the region. “Our market share is 20% that brings us to the second slot; but the way our company is growing it has all the signs to be a bigger operation in the near future competing head-on with other multinational companies in the region,” concludes Yoon passionately.
