Bangladesh was known more for volume and basics … Over the last few years , the country has made substantial advances , diversifying its product basket to offer value-added , innovative and fashionable items to attract buyers from across the globe . A case in point is the Russian fashion brand oodji that has not only started sourcing from the country but is also aiming to increase its order volumes significantly in the coming days .

“ In the last 3-4 years , the industry has matured a lot so much so that today Bangladesh can do any fashion item , and oodji is sourcing almost everything from here except for some outerwear products ,” maintains Nipun Kundu , Sourcing Manager of oodji , in Bangladesh .

Kick-starting Bangladesh operations in 2010 , the company has so far procured 15-25 % requirements from the country , Uzbekistan accounting for another 20 per cent and the rest coming in from China . However with changing dynamics – China increasingly getting expensive owing to spiralling labour costs and Bangladesh maturing as a manufacturing destination while still being able to maintain and leverage its cheap and abundant workforce – things are all set to change as far as oodji is concerned .

“ We are steadily increasing our sourcing volumes from Bangladesh , and by 2020 plans are on to get at least 30 per cent production done in Bangladesh . Keeping with this , we are also looking at increasing our supplier base ,” explains the Bangladesh

Nipun Kundu , Sourcing Manager of oodji

We have two lines : men and women . In men ’ s category , our order volumes are around 3,000- 20,000 pieces per style . We have six seasons in a year and these orders are for each season which runs for 2 months ...

- Nipun Kundu

Sourcing Head of the Russian retailer , which has more than 700 stores across Russia and Eastern Europe , besides being present on the online platform of Amazon Europe to cater to the fashion-conscious consumers at a competitive price range . “ All our products are fashion-based , basically in the medium range . As a matter of fact , most of our stores are located alongside that of Zara and H & M ’ s ; so our prices are at par with theirs ’ but style-wise better ,” claims Nipun , who works with around 10 to 12 supplier factories in Bangladesh for knit items , 20-25 units for woven products and around 10 or more for sweaters .

“ In sweaters , currently we are sourcing primarily the light and medium-gauges from Bangladesh while the heavier ones are procured from China . In outerwear , Bangladesh is not very strong yet , so we have to depend on others ,” avers Nipun , who

claims to offer better bargain to the suppliers compared to many other global brands , but is very stringent when it comes to vendor selection .

He further emphasises , referring to the process , “ Even before we start negotiation , we do inspections as per our very own auditing systems and guidelines . If the scrutiny returns satisfactory results , we ask the manufacturer to make some samples for us subsequent to which pricing is worked out and orders placed .” However continuous orders being guaranteed , manufacturers have nothing much to worry about on the business front once selected , albeit one is not looking at big order volumes .

“ We have two lines : men and women . In men ’ s category , our order volumes are around 3,000-20,000 pieces per style . We have six seasons in a year and these orders are for each season which runs for 2 months . So , effectively we have six collections every year and each collection has more than 50-80 styles . However , the main problem in Bangladesh is that most of the manufacturers want volume orders in minimum styles ,” Nipun maintains underlining that things are changing for good lately . “ These days more and more manufacturers are opening up to smaller orders and diverse styles ,” he asserts adding that suppliers need not panic about lead time and six seasons in a calendar year .

The Sourcing Manager further reasons , “ Basically we start working for next year from the current one and orders are placed a year in advance