The way Ethiopia is being promoted by the US retailers and the World Bank, it seems it will not take much time before the country develops into a major sourcing destination...
I have not seen or heard of many Indian companies moving out of their comfort zones to establish factories outside the country... Arvind Mills with its denim plant, Indorama with its polyester plant and beating them is Kanoria Chemicals & Industries which has already inaugurated a denim factory, the first in Ethiopia, with an annual capacity of 12 million metres; and Raymond with its garment factory, and many more have already started due diligence and have assigned people and resources to the project...
What surprised me even more is the interest of Bangladesh entrepreneurs, many of whom are seriously contemplating starting factories there, and why not! The country is young and full of anticipation, offers lot of scope for investment in cotton cultivation and hydro energy, a special duty-free access to the US through AGOA and EU market under EPA, besides competitive labour wages (around US $ 50), improving infrastructure and an industry-savvy Government.
If that is not enough to entice the businessmen, then there are US retailers and brands who are taking delegations to Ethiopia with a promise to fill their factories. A 27-member garment exporter’s team has been selected for an investment trip to Ethiopia from Bangladesh; and last I heard was that DBL, a US $ 250 million exporter from Bangladesh, has already earmarked US $ 100 million investment and factory to begin production in late 2016.
Well-known company of Egypt, Velocity of an Indian entrepreneur Sidharth Singa has already started production in Ethiopia with around 2,000 employees… He has plans to take the head count to 10,000 employees. Alameda Textiles has similar plans to take the head count to 11,000 from 5,500 today. The list goes on… It all sound very exciting and I will surely give you my update in the next couple of weeks with a story on latest developments in Ethiopia.
I was in the USA recently to attend the Texprocess Americas at Atlanta. It is always exciting to meet friends and colleagues from around the world and catch-up on latest trends in market and technology. This time I met many interesting people in the e-commerce and bespoke segment.
These are the two areas that are growing and many retailers/brands are aggressively looking at these options to attract customers who are increasingly becoming difficult to please. Technology providers are also making efforts to keep pace with new challenges in the segment. Another segment that was under debate and direction for constant innovation is Robotics in apparel manufacturing... This issue carries an analysis of some of the interesting technologies that drew attention.
The issue also takes a deep look at how to handle concerns of first-hour productivity by StitchWorld after much deliberation with industry experts in the article Combatting First-hour Productivity Woes. A new series has been initiated from this issue onwards, appropriately titled TechRead, which will update our readers on books, both recent and classics that can help run factories more efficiently by brushing up your understanding of both management/production techniques and technologies.
I have not seen or heard of many Indian companies moving out of their comfort zones to establish factories outside the country... Arvind Mills with its denim plant, Indorama with its polyester plant and beating them is Kanoria Chemicals & Industries which has already inaugurated a denim factory, the first in Ethiopia, with an annual capacity of 12 million metres; and Raymond with its garment factory, and many more have already started due diligence and have assigned people and resources to the project...
What surprised me even more is the interest of Bangladesh entrepreneurs, many of whom are seriously contemplating starting factories there, and why not! The country is young and full of anticipation, offers lot of scope for investment in cotton cultivation and hydro energy, a special duty-free access to the US through AGOA and EU market under EPA, besides competitive labour wages (around US $ 50), improving infrastructure and an industry-savvy Government.
If that is not enough to entice the businessmen, then there are US retailers and brands who are taking delegations to Ethiopia with a promise to fill their factories. A 27-member garment exporter’s team has been selected for an investment trip to Ethiopia from Bangladesh; and last I heard was that DBL, a US $ 250 million exporter from Bangladesh, has already earmarked US $ 100 million investment and factory to begin production in late 2016.
Well-known company of Egypt, Velocity of an Indian entrepreneur Sidharth Singa has already started production in Ethiopia with around 2,000 employees… He has plans to take the head count to 10,000 employees. Alameda Textiles has similar plans to take the head count to 11,000 from 5,500 today. The list goes on… It all sound very exciting and I will surely give you my update in the next couple of weeks with a story on latest developments in Ethiopia.
I was in the USA recently to attend the Texprocess Americas at Atlanta. It is always exciting to meet friends and colleagues from around the world and catch-up on latest trends in market and technology. This time I met many interesting people in the e-commerce and bespoke segment.
These are the two areas that are growing and many retailers/brands are aggressively looking at these options to attract customers who are increasingly becoming difficult to please. Technology providers are also making efforts to keep pace with new challenges in the segment. Another segment that was under debate and direction for constant innovation is Robotics in apparel manufacturing... This issue carries an analysis of some of the interesting technologies that drew attention.
The issue also takes a deep look at how to handle concerns of first-hour productivity by StitchWorld after much deliberation with industry experts in the article Combatting First-hour Productivity Woes. A new series has been initiated from this issue onwards, appropriately titled TechRead, which will update our readers on books, both recent and classics that can help run factories more efficiently by brushing up your understanding of both management/production techniques and technologies.
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