With its corporate office in Mumbai, Khwaja Exports was established 30 years ago and had been working majorly for the US market ever since, through its manufacturing units in the country as well as in middle eastern countries like UAE, Oman, Kuwait and Qatar. However, the company has now shut down its Middle East ventures and consolidated its manufacturing to a competent single unit in Bangalore. Working in basic garments with high volume for some of the established names like Walmart, Kmart, Tom Taylor, C&A and Nordstrom, the company believes in technological improvisation as a means to minimize labour hurdles and holds 400 machines under its roof, including automatic machines from premium brands.
Even though the company is primarily into basic garments, it flaunts an able product development department. “We have our own designers and we use WGSN for fashion forecasting. We get our requisite fabrics from our nominated suppliers and we have dedicated sampling unit for developing our own collection. So we offer customers to pick from one of our designs rather than being totally dependent on their techpacks,” says Mohd. Arif Khan, Director, Khwaja Exports.
The Rs. 35 crore company has diversified its product categories to include certain value-added garments as well as critical products like trousers. Citing recession being the reason behind this move, Arif adds, “We have to completely change our business with which we have been working for the past 30 years right from top to bottom. Although we were doing trousers from our middle-east factory, including huge quantities for JCPenney, we did not do the same here in India as competing with Pakistan and others in trousers wasn’t easy because of the cheap availability of fabric there. We limited ourselves to doing blouses here. But we always had the expertise, even the machinery was flexible to adapt with such a category.” Arif believes that to ensure quality in any company it is vital for the management to be involved in the processes of manufacturing.
With changing times and increasing competition, Khwaja believes that the relation it shares with its customers is its greatest strength. “Our strength over the years has been our offices in New York and Dubai and some agents in Europe, finding our customers with whom we have worked directly for years. Instead of going after new buyers who would give us small volumes, we stick to the big volume buyers we have had for years. And in return, they give us preference whenever they have to look beyond Bangladesh,” concludes Arif.
