ADVERTORIAL
Functional textile to be a popular
future trend
Four Elements Energy’s multi-functional smart textiles combine biology and material
technologies and use zinc oxide in manufacturing. The company incorporates elements
emitting far infra-red rays, negative ions, microbe free and odourless elements, and ultra-
violet resistance properties in its fabrics. Company sales representative Vivien Lin and
general manager Tony Kau talk to Fibre2Fashion about expanding business internationally.
How does your supply chain work? Which regions are part of your supply chain?
Nowadays, we are focused on the domestic market in Taiwan. Last year, we
initiated promotions to find customers abroad, and we have already sold our
chip to customers in China and Thailand.
Vivien Lin
Sales Representative
From where do you source the raw materials?
For production, we collaborate with Taiwan Textile Research Institute for part of
our masterbatch, while for others, we make it ourselves. We handle and control
the quality of our masterbatch and send to spindle manufacturers. We are
unique in this work approach.
Do you purchase yarns locally for making of certain applications?
We now produce only filament-polyester and nylon yarns in Taiwan and that
is the part we support. In order to sell yarn at a competitive price, we have
collaborated with a yarn manufacturing factory in China to reduce the cost. We
stock these spun yarns in China. If we get orders from countries like India, we
are able to deliver to them directly from China, so customers will get quicker
delivery. If we c annot control quality in China, we won't sell because once yarn
becomes fabric, dyeing turns difficult.
Tony Kau
Which brands and retailers are you currently associated with?
We support many brands, such as Amway, Wacoal, Triumph, Marks & Spencer,
Mizuno and New Balance. Last year, we invested more in promotions,
participated in various exhibitions and met new buyers, both from brands and
manufacturers. However, we feel direct association with garment manufacturers
is more efficient than with brands.
General Manager
Is your company taking certain initiatives for sustainability?
We introduced customers to dope dye, which saves water as the yarn colour is
from masterbatch, the plastic material of yarn. Ours generally is black in colour.
Due to high price of other colours and colour limitation, there is not much demand
yet for functional dope dye yarn in our market. We are still optimistic and looking
for customers who would like to protect planet with Talent Yarn by combining dope
dye with functions into yarn. Through functional dope dye, yarn will definitely be