Smart clothing is the way forward
Our primary market is the United
States. China remains our main market
in Asia. Besides that, the domestic
African market is also important to
us. We are trying and would like to
explore Europe as well. In Europe,
they use more mature chemicals and
advanced machines. European markets
have low quantities, high pricing and
high quality. To enter Europe, we need
to understand their markets better. We
want to focus on our strengths and not
be hasty in our decisions to enter new
markets.
specialist watching out. At the same
time, our yarn dyeing factories have
their own purchasing staff, who
watch from their end. So these three
departments gather information and
prepare reports. We also use reports
from the Taiwan Textile Federation and
the American Cotton Association.
What percentage of your sales is
through brick & mortar and what
through e-marketplace?
For B2B, it is quite hard to sell through
an online marketplace if you do not
have a brand. We do not plan to do
that at the moment; we will stick to
supplying to brands. Having a brand
of your own requires huge capital
investment. We really need to be
careful about when, where, and how
to start a brand. Since we manufacture
for brands, we wouldn’t want to end
up being their competitor.
How do you predict the price trend
in the dynamic global yarn markets?
We actually have three different
people who do this job. One of them
is from our production department
who overviews the price trends in
all the countries we operate in. The
other is the fabric department, which
purchases the yarn too. It has a senior
What is the USP of your produ cts?
In the yarn dyeing segment, we used
to be the largest mercerised yarn-dyed
manufacturers in Taiwan. However, the
demand for mercerised yarn reduced
with the passage of time. We are
leading yarn-dyeing manufacturers
who are bluesign certified in Taiwan.
We use the bluesign systems to
upgrade our factory. We use chemicals
and make sure the dyeing techniques
used are as eco-friendly as possible.
In terms of fabric innovation,
our R&D team is a pioneer. We
can develop any fabric based on
customers’ requirements. On the
garment manufacturing side, we have
three different production facilities,
as I mentioned earlier. Customers
requiring quick response to orders
opt for our Mexico site. If they
need in large quantities, then our
Asia site is preferred. If they want
duty-free production sites, then the
orders are routed to the Africa site.
Manufacturing smart clothing is our
strength.
Which are your major international
markets? Are you planning to expand
to any other regions in the near
future?
What is your R&D team like?
How much do you spend on R&D
annually?
We have a R&D and marketing
department at TexRay. Our new
CEO is extremely careful about
spending money. He analyses
closely the output of spending on
R&D, which is why we call it the
‘conversationalisation department’.
Every penny spent on R&D needs
to have a solid outcome. So our
human resources in the R&D team is
extremely tight at the moment. The
R&D team gets new materials, tries
new techniques and machines to
come up with unique innovations.
We have marketing people, who
seek all sort of market information,
work on customer analysis, and look
for new technologies. They also gather
information and news from around the
world. There is also another team that
participates in different exhibitions and
public relations events. We also have
a dedicated team working on special
projects. R&D is the backbone of the
company.
What are your growth expectations
from the company for the next two
fiscals?
It is hard to give a number. Some of
our businesses are doing well. But
due to an unfortunate fire accident
at our China site last year, we lost a
few goods. We did suffer quite a bit
from that last year. But if I have to give
an overview of the company, then
TexRay is growing, especially in Africa.
In the United States, it depends on
the political decision to be taken by
President Trump. Our China market
is going strong. Therefore, we expect
a 5-10 per cent overall growth in the
next few years.