Shirish Srivastava, Country Manager – Apparel Sourcing (India) at Puma Global Sourcing, Bangalore an ex-Niftian, a lean manufacturing expert and a black belt in six sigma, has over 16 years of sourcing experience from India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Pakistan. Apparel Resources talked to him on sourcing and allied issues in apparel industry.
He has worked with Indian apparel exporters, international brands and buying houses like Shahi Exports, Impulse International, Enamor and Adidas India. Working with Puma from last three and a half years, Shirish is heading the sourcing activity of India office for apparels and accessories. He looks after domestic as well as export side of business. Puma India has team a of 16 people in apparels (excluding logistics), and out of its total apparel sourcing from the country, 85 per cent is for local stores while 15 per cent is for overseas.
As far as emerging challenges in apparel sourcing is concerned, Shirish feels that speed to delivery and zero tolerance towards poor quality are the challenges which have become increasingly important in recent times, especially with immense pressure on sales. “Price is no longer the biggest challenge as brands are willing to shell out extra as long as the quality is best in class and design to delivery is fast,” he underlined and further added that delivery and quality continue to be under the lens as always with stress on innovation adding to the list.
In regards to sourcing for Puma’s overseas stores and for Indian stores, he said that there should not be any difference. Processes set for a sourcing framework should be independent of destination. Obviously, the lead times the company gets for international orders will factor the sailing time but rest of the processes remain standardized. Talking about Bangladesh, Shirish told he does not source products for domestic selling from Bangladesh as with added duty, it does not give them price advantage. “India has some fantastic setups that are competitive in terms of price to any Bangladesh supplier,” he mentioned…
For detailed interview please see the upcoming Issue of Apparel Online India magazine.