One of the major names in Bangladesh’s apparel industry, Ananta Group is investing in the production of man-made polyester fibre to enter sportswear market. This came after country’s big success in producing fan jerseys for the FIFA World Cup.
Up until now, Bangladesh’s apparel segment has been largely reliant upon natural fibre cotton which is about 83 per cent according to industry insiders. Until recently, there has been very little development on the man-made fibre segment.
This year alone, Bangladesh earned US $1 billion from the export of jerseys made from man-made fibres. This precisely is being thought of as a window of opportunity for the apparel makers. As it goes, Ananta Group’s thoughts are on similar wavelength.
At the end of this year, Ananta Group is going for construction work of its polyester manufacturing unit in Chittagong’s Mirsarai, an allotted land of the Economic Zone. It hopes to go into full production of polyester clothing by 2020 – most probably eyeing the sportswear market of the next FIFA World Cup in Qatar in 2022.
“We are investing in sportswear. The business of casual wear and knit wear are more profitable because consumers are more into that. We have already started work. We will produce our own polyester fibre here,” Sharif Zahir, Managing Director of the Ananta Group told Apparel Resources on June 25, 2018.
Primarily, according to what he said, Ananta Group will eye the market segment of European Union with the facility of ‘Everything But Arms’ GSP facility.
According to what the industry insiders think, Bangladesh, with the advantage of low labour wages, can become one of the hotspots for sportswear, an apparel segment which is increasingly gaining foothold in the international markets.
However, there are concerns of fair pricing among local producers.
