Apparel Online Bangladesh Magazine December Issue 2018 | Page 32

EXPORTER PERSPECTIVE
ANANTA MODIFYING OPERATIONS AND PRACTICES
FOR BUSINESS GROWTH AND VIABILITY
T
here perhaps are no fixed rules in
business and with changing times,
one has to evolve to grow, and most
of the successful business entities
recognise and implement the same.
One such name from Bangladesh
to have embraced the changes
and rather successfully is Ananta.
Incepted in 1991 by Late Humayun
Zahir, Ananta is one of the premier
denim manufacturers of the country
which employs around 20,000 people
across the company with an annual
turnover of over US $ 200 million.
“Right now, the industry is going
through a very difficult phase, which is
pretty much due to the existing global
retail scenario. The RMG sector has
always been price-driven where the
countries that offer the cheapest prices
prevail. However, things have come to
such a point where further squeeze, in
terms of profit margins, would sound
the death knell for the manufacturers.
If that was not all, we as manufacturers
have not been very good, either in
terms of ensuring production efficiency
or cost cutting, excepting may be a few.
Add to that the bank loans with high
interest rates, which many have been
taking for expansion, remediation or
other purpose. All these factors have
added up to create a very uncertain
future for the industry. And now with
increased wages, things would get
even tougher,” maintains Sharif Zahir,
Managing Director of Ananta (who is
spearheading the organisation in these
challenging times) while speaking
to Apparel Online.
Realising the call of the hour, more so
in the light of the existing scenario,
Sharif has undertaken many new
steps.
Sharif Zahir,
Managing Director of Ananta
“Right now,
the industry is
going through
a very difficult
phase, which
is pretty much
due to the
existing global
retail scenario.”
“In the last couple of years, we have
been concentrating on consolidating
and re-structuring the organisation
both in terms of operations and
management. Even though denim
continues to be our principal offering
in terms of products, we have
also started manufacturing other
categories,” explains Sharif, while
maintaining that at a time when
margins in regular products are on,
an all-time low due to the cut-throat
competition between the players, all of
whom want to have a share of the pie,
there’s no option but to diversify the
product basket.
However, choosing the products is
not an easy job! “While diversifying,
the primary criterion is that of
demand-supply scenario in the global
perspective. Once the product has
been zeroed upon, we go in for market
survey and team building before we
start the actual production. This is
kind of a gestation period, during
which we try to figure out if we can
develop strategic alliances with the
buyers, which could give us that extra
edge,” says Sharif, who has many such
alliances with existing clients like
Levi’s, GAP and H&M.
Suits and sweaters are two main
products that Ananta has started
producing already, while lingerie is
the latest to kick-start operations
from this year. Ananta has a state-
of-the-art men’s tailoring facility,
Universal Menswear Ltd., producing
1,20,000 pieces of men’s formal
suits and 1,80,000 pieces of formal
trousers per month. This factory is a
joint venture between Time Trading
Intl. (a leading Romanian Tailoring
Manufacturer) and Ananta Group. In
sweaters, Ananta Huaxiang Ltd. is the
new computerised knitting sweater
factory, operating with fully automatic
and semi-automatic machines. Its
production capacity per month is
3,50,000 pieces, covering both fine and
coarse gauge sweaters for leading
names like H&M, Next, Cubus/Varner
Group, Jack & Jones, M&S and Gary
Weber, etc.
“Even in terms of markets, we have
expanded; we are now catering to
China and India, through our existing
clients,” Sharif adds while observing
that gone are the days of owner-
driven businesses with traditional
approach. “Today, it is all about men
and technology. The best investment
is in human resources and training.
Training should start with the owners,
be it in management best practices
or man-management, pricing and
negotiations, etc., percolating down
to the senior, middle-management
and the workers,” explicates the
company’s MD.
With efficient mid-managers being in
short supply in Bangladesh, Ananta
prefers to have expats with proven
track records, who are provided with
teams of promising management
trainees cherry-picked from the best
of the management institutes to train
them up for the future.
“For most of our ventures, we have
independent CEOs now, who are
running the show on their own. If
one has to grow and develop in this
age, business has to be handed over
to the professionals, which we have
started doing already. Some of these
ventures are out-and-out profit
centres and a few cost centres,” winds
up Sharif, making it amply clear that
the next focus area is on injecting
professionalism in terms of business
operation and practices.
32 Apparel Online Bangladesh | December 2018 | www.apparelresources.com