Apparel Online India Magazine October 1st Issue 2018 | Page 57

EYES & EARS
Puma increasing its sourcing from India;
looking for new vendors
P
uma Sports India is in the
process of increasing its
sourcing from India and adding new
vendors also. Currently working with
8 apparel manufacturers in India,
the company is looking for vendors
who are experts in producing
products like polo tees and jackets.
Considering the aggressive projected
sourcing from India, the company is
looking for a total of six new vendors
(2 vendors in each major product
category). These expansion plans are
mainly for filling the sourcing needs
of overseas stores. “As our company
is growing well at the international
level, our global team is being pushed
to secure more orders. In the last
one year, our sourcing from India has
already seen four times growth…
Now we are targeting to further
increase it by four more times within
the next three years. So, we are
looking for garment manufacturers
who are very quality-conscious and
truly believe in transparency. Though
compliance is the basic need for
vendors who want to work with us,
high efficiency is equally important
at the same time. If a factory is not
highly-efficient, it can’t meet our
costing… So, vendors have to be very
technology-oriented, and think and
work for the long-term perspective,”
shared Ajay Kr Pandey, Manager,
QC and QA (Apparel), Puma
Sports India, Bangalore. Ajay Kr Pandey, Manager, QC and QA (Apparel),
Puma Sports India, Bangalore
He further added that the biggest
difficulty is non-availability of good
polyester fabric base. “Though the
garment manufacturers import
these kinds of fabric, or for that
matter any other fabric that we
require, but sometimes it creates
issues regarding the timeline. The
Indian mills are good, but they have
to invest in the technology for such
types of fabric. So we can have this ‘imported’ fabric from India itself,
and also in good quality, provided
they invest in technology. Actually,
due to dependency on imported
fabric, India is losing business,” says
Ajay, who is also of the opinion that
the demand of MMF-based garments
will grow in the future. Currently,
almost 60 per cent of the MMF base
sourcing of Puma is from China. “In
For overseas market, just
a year ago, Puma was
annually sourcing 0.5
million pieces from India,
which today is 2 million;
this is further expected to
increase to 8 to 10 million
in next three years.
India, we can manage the cost in
terms of workmanship and overall
garment appeal…, but the only
problem is the fabric area. If this can
be managed somehow, the business
can grow tremendously. At the
international level, orders are being
taken in China, but the same orders
are being completed in Bangladesh,”
he concluded.
www.apparelresources.com | OCTOBER 1-15, 2018 | Apparel Online India
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