Apparel Online India Magazine March 1st Issue 2019 | Page 53

INDIA’S PREMIER SOURCING SHOW
Faruque Hassan, MD, Giant Group
Syed Shafqat Ahmed, MD, Saiham Knit Composite Ltd.
the liaison office in Dhaka to their 200 stores in the
country. “We don’t have to make any special effort as our
buyers directly source the total requirement and ship
out to the particular countries; sometimes a product
reaches India even before it can reach shelves in Europe,”
confirms Omar Chowdhury, MD, Hydroxide Knitwear.
Interestingly, Chowdhury also points out that with the
buying power of the European countries reducing,
garment manufacturing companies are increasingly
looking towards the East for their businesses.
Many companies are happy to work in a similar way as
with this approach, every approval and payment is made
from the head offices of the brands. Moreover in this case,
even price is also the same, no matter whether they are
delivered into Europe or India. “We are working with
brands like Bestseller and Jack & Jones in their core
markets and their head offices ask us to deliver in India too.
In India, we normally supply sweaters and average MOQ
is between 2,000 and 3,000 pieces, and sometimes it goes
up to maximum 5,000 to 6,000 pieces,” informs Alamgir
Kabir, MD, Best Wool Sweaters Limited. He further adds
that though India is a big market, it is hard to say anything
about the future with regard to exporting to India.
On the other hand, many exporters are strongly willing to
explore new client base in India but they are concerned
about working with wholesalers or importers, who may
be good clients but are not well known or don’t have
any strong tool to ensure their credibility. “It is an issue,
specially looking at some previous experiences in which
shipments were not released and it was finally worse
than even the stocklot. I don’t see any other challenge,”
shares Omar. 
Indian wholesalers also agree on this point and accept
that this is a genuine worry for the Bangladeshi
companies. An Indian importer AKM Sirajul Arifin,
KK Enterprise, North 24 Parganas, is of the view, “Yes,
it is right that there is no such way to measure credibility
of a wholesaler or importer, especially in case of SMEs,
but mutual reference, advanced payments and developing
trust over the period are the only solutions. And we
have developed our business in this way.” He is also in
the process to add one more vendor from Bangladesh.
He further adds that the cotton-based garments of
Bangladesh are of good quality. Earlier, he was importing
tees and shirts but now he is focusing on ladies products.
The exporters, having similar experience, are now
exploring India directly and their priority is working with
brands or retailers directly. “As price pressure is already
there, why we should pay some percentage to wholesalers
or importers? In the West, we also work directly and
the same will be followed in India,” comments Ehsanul
Habib, MD, Esquire Knit Composite Limited. The
company’s marketing team is now exploring India through
their direct contacts.
Some exporters add that China at the moment is more
interesting than India,; it is more organised to work with
the Chinese. “No doubt, in long run, China and India will be
the core markets for Bangladesh. But still I see that some
Bangladeshi exporters are reluctant to explore India. There
are two reasons for the same. First is the red tape in India,
especially for documentation. Secondly, Indian buyers need
to change their attitude. Personally, I don’t have any issue
with the Indian companies. There are many Indians in my
factory, and I am from Gujarat too. I feel once Bangladesh
will have US $ 2 billion apparel exports to India, other
exporters will look up to India. Recently, I got an invite from
India to explore the Indian market and I asked my team to
avail this opportunity but they were not keen just because
of the Indian buyers’ attitude,” adds A Razzak Sattar, MD,
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