Street Legal Clothing (a division of 3532534 Canada Ltd.), a two decades old import house, will start sourcing fabric from India and also restart its garment sourcing from Tirupur. The company, very strong in sourcing of uniforms, workwear, sportswear and hunting jackets, is sourcing from Bangladesh, India, China and Cambodia for Canada market. With a business of US $ 8 billion, the company also has its office in Delhi at present and works with three vendors from India.
Ravi Verma, VP of the company, shared with Apparel Online, “We import fabric from China but now we are into the process to identify some Indian suppliers, so that we will be able to import cotton and Polyester Cotton (PC) blend fabric from India, and will get cut and stitch done in Bangladesh. Initially, it will be for a Canadian retail chain store that is looking for uniforms from us. And his order sizes are also good enough.”
Talking about Tirupur, Ravi stated that it is a really important sourcing destination for him but from last few years, they are not sourcing primarily from there because Tirupur has to pay duty while exporting to Canada. However, he has plans to start sourcing again from Tirupur if the manufacturers based there are able to match with the prices offered by the Bangladesh factories. Ravi puts it simple, “They have to manage the costing if they have to survive.”
With reference to the growth of his imports business, Ravi briefed that it is taking place but at a slower pace. “Pricing is very tight especially in our part of the world. North America is struggling on price issue which makes pricing the key point. We are trying to work with vertical units so that profit does not split and we get advantage of complete in-house production while getting benefit on the price issue. If prices are okay, we can source millions of pieces, otherwise we are forced to source only 2,000 to 3,000 pieces per style,” said a thoughtful Ravi, and further added that in terms of basic products like men’s shirts and Tees, they do 1,00,000 pieces. Hence, according to him, quantities are there but manufacturers have to be sharp enough.
