Who would not know the Nobel laureate Prof. Muhammad Yunus, the pioneer who started the Grameen Bank concept, designing a credit delivery system to provide banking services to the rural poor, but how many would know that Grameen Bank has spawned over 50 other firms in sectors that stretch from textiles to mobile phones. One of the textile firms under the aegis of Grameen Group, Grameen Knitwear Limited, was established in 1997 as a 100 per cent export oriented company owned by Grameen Fund and Grameen Kalyan both ‘revenue generation’ companies but ‘not for profit’. “Both these units work with the sole purpose to support and implement sustainable programs aimed at providing better livelihood to people especially in rural areas in order to minimize inequality and disparity,” avers Md. Ashraful Hassan, Managing Director of five companies that come under the aegis of Grameen Bank including Grameen Knitwear and Grameen Fabrics and Fashions.
Grameen Knitwear, supplies majorly to Europe and believes in quality products and timely delivery. It manufactures high quality of knit fabrics and garments for children, men and women. The fabrics and garments are made of yarn dyed 100 per cent cotton, TC, CVC, Polyester with Lycra, etc. of various counts. The affairs of the Knitwear Division are run by a Board of Directors comprising of the representatives from the sponsoring companies. With a turnover of US $ 22 million from 36 circular knitting machines and 24 lines of sewing machines, Grameen Knitwear caters to brands such as Laura Stein, Marcel Clair, Medico, Umbro, Slazenger, Pierre Cardin, Georgio Armani and many others.
Grameen Group is going ahead with a major expansion plan by making Grameen Fabrics and Fashion Limited (GFFL) green from its inception. The US $ 60 million setup is a composite knitwear factory with production capacity of 20 tonnes fabric and 60,000 pieces of garments per day along with all accessories right from yarn to finished garments. The GFFL factory is going to incorporate green sustainable measures such as reducing water and energy consumption through eco-friendly innovations in collaboration with Green Project W.S.T. Limited. “The project aims to ensure optimum use of energy and resources from fibre to readymade garments in production process and also reduce load on combustion of fuels used for generating heat energy, steam and electricity,” shares Hassan.
The company is using quality yarn to avoid bio-polishing or enzyme wash creating healthy working conditions for the workers by reducing 10-15 per cent consumption of dyes and chemicals and water consumption. Also, in the processing stage, majorly high exhaustion dyes are used instead of low exhaustion dyes. “This is the first time in history that in the textile sector a company is getting the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) benefits from the Government of Japan. Though it is not a huge amount of money but still it is recognition that we are incorporating green in our units,” says Hassan.
