Apparel Online India Magazine June 1st Issue 2018 | Page 8

MIND TREE
Q-and-A
In the current difficult scenario, the entire supply chain associated with apparel exports is under
pressure. Being a buyer representative or buying house, what steps are you taking to cope up
with this situation? So far, how much growth or downfall have you witnessed in the current fiscal?
What are the changes in sourcing strategy that you brought in to maintain your business?
Prem Khemlani,
Marketing Manager, GM
Industries Ltd., Hong Kong
We are exploring new sourcing
as well as selling destinations.
Currently, we are sourcing from
China and our main products
are jeans, tees and blouses. Our
main markets are Middle East
and South America (importers).
Till now we were not sourcing
from India, but from last one
month, I am in Bangalore and
visited Bellary (Karnataka) and
Tirupur. We are getting support
from China-based small-scale
factories that even do 400
pieces per style in 4 colours
while earlier their MOQs were
1,000 pieces. Even in smaller
orders, their prices are very
competitive.
This is one of the reasons that
we are sustaining but despite
that to do something new, to
add value I came to India and
am exploring options. If we
can source more and different
products, we can sell more.
Similarly, new customer base
(clients) are also in process
as in next few months I will be
visiting the US.
Sarabjit Singh, Manager,
Siba International,
Denmark
One should have a long-term
thinking, as ups and downs
are a regular part of business.
Along with that, new ideas, new
developments are the focus to
overcome current challenges.
Our designers are now more
aggressively working on
products, adding value to the
existing products. They are more
innovative now. Besides, the
price issue will always remain
anywhere and everywhere,
be it in India or China. I have
noticed that in some product
categories, Indian prices are
not high when compared to
China… We are trying to find
more such products to improve
overall sourcing.
Jag Mohan Sharma,
Sourcing Manager, Buffalo
David Bitton, Canada
We are already sourcing from
well established companies of
China, Bangladesh and India
that are following compliance
completely and working with
proper systems, so we have
less issues on sourcing side.
And to remain competitive, we
constantly work on sourcing
front, developing vendors,
exploring new factories that are
having any kind of special or
different product. We travel a
lot for this.
Meanwhile, in our core
markets – the Canada and the
US – the economy is good. In
fact Canada is positive and
growing, especially compared
to last year. The Canadian
Government is also increasing
its rate of interest as they don’t
want that the things should go
very fast, but rather remain in
control. On the other hand, in
8 Apparel Online India | JUNE 1-15, 2018 | www.apparelresources.com
US, things are a little bit shaky
after the current developments
in North American Free Trade
Agreement (NAFTA) and other
such incidents. But overall
growth is going on.
SS Bhatnagar,
Chairman, Sakshay
International, Delhi
We are now very much careful
about all these things that
make up sourcing, as we are
connected with good overseas
companies and they are our
old clients. They often say
that costing is more, and so
we do a lot of exercise with
local suppliers to bring down
the cost, but all with buyers’
permission. Whenever someone
is trying to bring down the cost,
there are enough chances to
have its ‘undesirable’ impact,
be it quality of the products
or allied aspects, like fabric’s
weight, GSM, count etc. We
make sure to maintain product
quality, without impacting the
look or feel of the product
as directed by the buyers,
besides reducing its cost. It
is developed as a mutual
understanding and proper
support to each other.
Secondly, our whole team is now
involved and is focusing more
on such products that are in
demand from various countries
and which till now were not
being supplied by us. Before the
buyer asks us for any product,
we should be able to send him
samples of the same.
Rajesh Singh Negi,
Sourcing Solutions India,
New Delhi
I think business is always
there for those who wish to
work. We are mainly into hard
goods, but now apparel is a
growing segment for us and
we are adding vendors for
the same. It is just due to our
sincere efforts and hard work.
To become competitive, we
explore several vendors and
work a lot on pricing. Yes,
there are some policy glitches;
like despite being world’s
largest yarn producer, we are
expensive on the garment
side. But rather than criticising
on the same, we have to find
solutions at our own level. It’s
all about how you make room
for yourself.
Sanjeev Jain, President
& CEO, TQM Global
Buying, Delhi
Not only today, the market
has always been tight and
has never been easy for
anyone. Our business is mainly
with South Africa apart from
few other countries. In South
Africa, since we are supplying
mainly to the ‘discount stores’,
we have to maintain tight
prices. Business is not a problem
even today, but one has
to be competitive enough.
Fortunately, we have been
able to find such factories
which fit into our price slot. As
I have enough experience