Operating a buying office (Teximco) and a manufacturing unit (Vertex Sweaters) is paying rich dividends to owner Md. Mijanur Rahman, MD, Teximco (BD) Ltd. in terms of increasing orders. “With the two companies, we are equipped to provide comprehensive support to our buyers for product sourcing, sampling, development and on-time shipments, because of which we are seeing order volumes increasing,” says Rahman, whose work experience in a Hong Kong-based trading office and a manufacturing company, has stood him in good stead.
While Teximco, with a current turnover of US $ 10 million, is sourcing mainly for the US market, Vertex, with its 300 handflat knitting machines and a workforce of 450 workers, is catering to buyers who prefer procuring sweaters directly from factories. The company is exporting to US, Germany, Italy, UK and Canada, with some orders coming from Russia and South Africa. Big buyers include Ross in the US and Walmart in Canada. 80% of the company’s sourcing is in sweaters for which it is working with 10 companies (8 in Dhaka and 2 in Chittagong), for bottoms that comprises the remaining 20% of the sourcing basket, Teximco is only working with Mahmud Jeans, which is a fully compliant and integrated denim manufacturer.
Even though Bangladesh is working largely with European markets, finding vendors for American customers did not pose a challenge for Rehman. “The low wages of labour in the country is a huge benefit for American buyers, but they are very stringent regarding building construction, compliance, etc. and though Accord and Alliance are working closely with the factories, but it will take time for them to become fully compliant,” he says.
The manufacturing wing, Vertex, offers sweaters made in handflat as well as computerized machines, depending on the design implications, and the FOBs can range between US $ 2-4 per sweater. Armed with both options, Rehman is doing orders as low as 600 pieces and as high as 80,000-90,000 pieces (for buyers such as Walmart). Demand by the US buyers is mainly for basic knitted sweaters and at times for pullovers, the preferred yarn is acrylic, which also has a lower custom duty than cotton. While Rehman is procuring local cotton, acrylic and blended yarns, but the more fancy varieties are being sourced from China, Vietnam and Myanmar. Rehman informs that the difference in FOBs between basic and designer sweater is about 70-80 cents, and US $ 2-3 for the make (handflat or computerized). “At Teximco, quality systems also depend on buyers’ demand for AQL varying from 1.5 or 2.5. Since it is difficult to maintain 1.5 AQL in sweaters, our quality team does random inspection and end-line inspections to ensure committed quality,” says Rehman, who is confident that focus on quality and timely delivery will give him an edge over his competitors, as a stable political situation in the country will attract more business from the US.
