Apparel Online Bangladesh Magazine Magazine March 2018 | Page 36
BUYER BLOG
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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.