Apparel Online Bangladesh Magazine Magazine March 2018 | Page 36

BUYER BLOG HAVE YOUR SAY BREAKING NEWS Tell us your news by emailing at [email protected] To read the latest sustainability news, go to https://apparelresources.com/business-news/sustainability/  ARYATEX SOURCING’s new game plan… Falling margins, diminishing order volumes lead the buying house to take to fabric sourcing and exploit opportunities in the domestic market C hallenging time calls for radical steps…At a time when mushrooming of competitors and falling margins have posed a question mark on the very existence of buying houses, many of them are re-strategizing their business approach to survive and sustain. If some have started concentrating only on the niche, many have adopted a collaborative approach to make it through the trying times. Given Bangladesh’s lack of self- sufficiency in fabric production, some have even taken to sourcing fabrics and supplying to the local manufacturers, which apart from being in demand, also holds a lot of promise in terms of price and profit, and Dhaka-based ARYATEX SOURCING is one such name. “Currently I’m putting more efforts in fabric sourcing rather than in RMG due to the poor profit margins in RMG. Though I am not going to stop sourcing apparels, I have no intentions to expand much in the buying business side… Dealing in fabrics is more profitable and holds a lot of prospect,” maintains Ashis Kumar Das, the CEO of ARYATEX SOURCING, revealing his business strategy in a candid discussion with Apparel Online. Struggling over price margins and order volumes, ARYATEX SOURCING, which started its journey as a joint venture with a Chittagong-based company in 2012 only to abort the affiliation and start its own sourcing business later on, is now catering to shirts and bottoms for the European markets including Netherlands, Italy and France. Relying on strong connection with China and India-based fabric suppliers, ARYATEX has been supplying to some of the world’s leading brands and retailers including Uniqlo, Primark, Next, Target, Tesco and American Eagles in fabrics. Besides the traditional cotton fabrics, ARYATEX’s primary strength is in yarn-dyed, blended stretch, linen, rayon and exclusive woven fabrics. “Besides the regular cotton fabrics, we’re working for exclusive technical fabrics now to meet the demands of upscale brands and retailers like Hugo Boss, GLF etc.,” Das emphasizes, adding that to penetrate the unstable fashion market and to reduce the lead time what he has been following is a non-conventional policy. Kamalendu Datta (L), Executive Director and Ashis Kumar Das, CEO, ARYATEX SOURCING Instead of going for multiple suppliers, ARYATEX prefers working with only few selective suppliers 36 Apparel Online Bangladesh | MARCH 2018 | www.apparelresources.com who usually not only take the responsibility of supplying fabrics but also ensure on-time delivery to the factories. It selects the textile mills by carefully examining the mill’s financing capability, customer dealing ethics, production capacity, skills and expertise and on top of it all, compliance. With an aim to grow the textile sourcing venture and ensure seamless follow-up with the mills’ existing and new clients, Das has recently opened an office in China, while also establishing another office in Hong Kong to handle finance and payments. But a vibrant entrepreneur that he is, Das is now concentrating on new product categories in RMG like kidswear and ladies items, which have good market globally. Besides, in a bid to reorganize and restructure the sourcing business, he has recently hired Kamalendu Datta as the Executive Director to look after the fabric sourcing, while Das himself would concentrate more on apparels and developing new product categories. Working with few selective compliance factories for the shirts and bottoms, ARYATEX SOURCING’s annual turnover is approximately US $ 2.8 million, of which more than 70% comes from fabric sourcing. Keeping the future in perspective, Das is now keen on opening a new office in EU to cater to the European clients in a better way. The huge domestic market in neighbouring India has also not escaped Das’s attention and he’s all set to sign a deal with an Indian client, about whom he’s not keen to divulge much except that it could prove to be a game changer.