Fibre2Fashion Magazine June 2018 June 2018 | Page 74

Clothing
today. However, if the customisation includes multiple
raw materials, there is a limitation to scalability related
to the amount of raw materials in stock.
Which brands and retailers are you associated with?
Hela manufactures for an array of brands and retailers
from intimatewear and casualwear to sportswear. Our
top three brands or groups in intimatewear are PVH
(Calvin Klein, Warner’s, Tommy Hilfiger and Izod),
Michael Kors and MGF group of brands; for casualwear
arm our main customers are VF Corporation, Tesco,
Marks & Spencer; and we manufacture for Speedo in
sportswear.
What kinds of quality and design standards do you
comply with?
Five out of the nine factories we have in Sri Lanka have
been awarded Gold WRAP certification, and we are
currently the only PVH Green rated plant in Africa,
which speaks for itself in terms of where Hela places
its benchmark for quality. In terms of design, since we
manufacture end-to-end designs, we always follow a
customer-price architecture which is designed to suit
the demand for fashion products, which in turn allows
the customer to market the product at the right price.
What is your R&D team like? How much do you
spend on R&D on an annual basis?
We have a diverse R&D team, in terms of expertise as
well as experience in the industry. The team expertise
ranges from mechanical/automation engineers, fabric
technologists, product development specialists to data
scientists and business analysts. While most members
have a minimum of 3–5 years of experience in the
industry, we also encourage those from outside the
industry to join the team.
How sustainable are your production facilities?
The Higg Index is a self-assessment standard for
the apparel and footwear industries to assess
environmental and social sustainability throughout
the supply chain. Hela has assessed five out of
the nine factories in Sri Lanka and the factories in
Africa as well. We are actively working to assess the
remaining factories so that collectively—a s a group—
we work towards sustainability from the initial point of
the garments’ lifecycle.
What policies and practices have helped Sri Lanka
as a manufacturing hub for the innerwear sector?
Most brands turn to Sri Lanka for innerwear due to
the high standard in quality and end-to-end solutions.
All leading manufacturers in Sri Lanka boast of very
high standards in compliance for their factories as
well as employees. This has become part of the overall
country’s offering. Hela Clothing, like most leaders in
the industry, provides more than just manufacturing
solutions for brands. An end-to-end approach for
design & innovation is a key offering that differentiates
us from Asian counterparts.
How do you ensure a lean supply chain?
We work closely with strategic suppliers who are
located close to our manufacturing facilities for
speed models and focus on VMI/JIT initiatives. Hela
has service providers within the plants to make the
manufacturing as lean as possible. Demand forecasts
and supply forecasts are areas which we are focusing
on in order to better VMI/JIT initiatives.
Most of Hela’s technological innovations are focused around its largest product ranges—boxers and panties. Adding more
functionality by creating an ideal fit and comfort through fabric features are the main technological innovations in these categories.
74  | FIBRE 2 FASHION JUNE 2018
What are the HR policies followed across your
offices?
While Hela firmly enforces and deploys several HR
policies into practice, they fall under the key pillars
of (i) attract talent, (ii) develop talent, and (iii) retain
talent. Under these pillars, some other initiatives are
gender equality, diversity and setting up workplace
flexibility as the new norm.