In 1985, Shahadat Hossain Chowdhury, Director, Favourite Garments, started his company with a vision to meet the market niche of fashionable apparel for women; today it claims to be one of the best manufacturers of women’s wear in the region. Dealing with only woven garments, exclusively for the export market, Favourite Garments has announced its plans to expand its operations with bigger facility and more machines by the end of 2013…
With around 420 machines at present, women’s wear manufacturer Favourite Garments is in the process of establishing more units for production, following the increasing demand from its buyers. With the current expansion, the company is all set to move to a bigger manufacturing unit with 650 machines. Contrary to general perception, the company is comfortable with small order sizes and the organization manufactures both basic and value-added products in the broad range of anywhere from 500-40,000 pieces per order.
In fact, Shahadat claims that many companies in Bangladesh are working with such business models. “Not more than 25% of factories in Bangladesh are working on only large quantities, the balance share belongs to the medium and small setups, who are working on small quantity orders as well,” shares Shahadat. The company exports its women’s wear to markets in UK, Canada, USA and some European countries as well. Working with fashionable fabrics that include cotton spandex, rayon fabric, polyester, polyester spandex, Favourite Garments imports 90% of the fabric from China, while the remaining 10% is being sourced from India. For value-added products, 60% of accessories are being imported from China and the remaining 40% is being sourced from the local market.
Manufacturing high-end products, when the company started its operations the FOB prices were around US $ 28, but with time the company’s FOB’s today range anywhere between US $ 50-60 per piece, shared Shahadat proudly.
As Director of BGMEA and the ex-Finance Director of the governing body, working on resolving various problems in Bangladesh including that of labour, Shahadat’s passion for the industry and 32 years of experience has kept him rooted to the business. “Labour unrest has proved to be a huge problem for business in Bangladesh. Even though the understanding between the Labour and the owner is good, financial troubles of the owners have caused some tensions in the past. Besides labour, energy crisis in the region has also added to the woes of the exporters. However, Shahadat now claims that the situation is under control. “Things have eventually become more stable over the past six months, so we are even more positive about our future growth” concludes Shahadat.
