The Gapexpo fair, jointly organized by ASK Trade & Exhibitions Private Ltd. and BGAPMEA (Bangladesh Garments Accessories and Packaging Manufacturers and Exporters Association), witnessed impressive participation by exhibiting companies and high visitor footfall. The sector, with 1,200 local companies, meets at least 60% of the entire accessory and packaging needs of the apparel sector, which, as per BGAPMEA, is expected to reach US $ 12 billion in 2018 and US $ 25 billion in 2025. For Indian and Chinese participants, the fair is important as they see great potential for business in the sector.
Cosmo Group-Bangladesh showcases new Adhesive Barcode Paper Label
Local producer of all kinds of accessories like gum tape, thermal print, raw materials for accessories, Cosmo Group, showcased its new development sticker paper – an adhesive barcode paper label. “This product has been made for the first time in Bangladesh and many people showed interest in it; earlier it was imported from Thailand, Malaysia and India,” shares Zahir Uddin Haider, Managing Director, Cosmo Group, which is catering to big garment companies such as Standard Group, Palmal Group, Mondol Group, Dekko Group, to mention a few.
Happy with the response at the fair, Zahir says that the trend of garment manufacturers going for backward linkage doesn’t impact his business. “Their costs are high, and secondly, they make small quantities, so for the rest they have to buy from us,” he reasons. According to him, earlier all the raw materials were being imported, but now the country is becoming self-reliant, and he too is looking at expanding his raw material business for accessories.
Alam Industries-Bangladesh flaunts Sewing Threads, Woven & Knitted Tapes
Alam Industries, sister concern of Alam Group and a leading garment accessories manufacturer in Bangladesh is producing woven belts, woven and knitted tapes for undergarments, sewing threads and interlinings for suits. While interacting with Team Apparel Online, Noor Alam, the young Chairman of the company, says, “Our quality and service both keep us ahead of our competition; we are very competitive in terms of pricing.”
Participating for the fourth time this year, Alam Industries is the nominated supplier to s.Oliver, C&A and Kmart, to mention a few. “There is still lot of space for companies who want to get into garment accessories as the garment export turnover is going to double within a decade in Bangladesh. With China no longer in the race, there is now a large scope for growth in the accessories segment of Bangladesh,” states Noor Alam.
Shenzhen Metal Industries-Bangladesh displays Metallic Zippers for the first time
A 100% export-oriented garments accessories manufacturing company, specializing in copper and alloy-based metal buttons, Shenzhen exhibited both its buttons as well as metal zippers. Vouching on their quality, Md. Aminul Islam, Managing Director of the company, says, “We import raw material from China, UK, Taiwan and India. We manufacture all buttons in-house and we have the best of machines and foreign technicians to produce world class buttons. In 2012, we made an investment of US $ 0.30 million; and last year, in December 2014, we again invested around US $ 0.60 million on machinery only. We have recently ventured into metallic zippers, and by mid of this year, we will add sewing threads to our kitty.”
As per Islam, there are around 16-18 zipper companies in Bangladesh and only 6 metal button factories. “Out of the total requirement of the RMG sector for metal buttons and zippers, only 10 to 12% is being fulfilled by local manufacturers; the rest is being imported from China, Taiwan, Korea and Japan,” he informs.
Interact Texlabels-India displays Self Adhesive Labels
Kolkata-based Indian company Interact Texlabels showed all varieties of labels such as paper label rolls, price making labels, numbering labels and stickers, barcode labels and tex-wavy labels. “We are catering to the garment manufacturers for layer numbering due to shade variation in the cutting room. Our adhesive grades can be used in various kinds of fabrics,” shares Anurag Mohan, Managing Director of the company.
Claiming to be overbooked, Anurag says that Bangladesh constitutes 60% of his total business share, followed by India, Sri Lanka, Middle East, Egypt and Kenya. “In Bangladesh, we play in volumes without compromising on quality; we have worked a lot on increasing our production capacities; on our raw material aspects; and we never changed our raw material supplier, which is Avery Dennison. We have worked on modalities to cut down wastage and slashed our prices. In other commodities, price tends to increase, but in this category it decreases, so we have to work very hard to fetch our margins which are already meagre,” states Anurag, for whom participating in the fair is more of a PR exercise for his existing clients.
J.V. Plastics-India attracts visitors with promotional Key Chains & Rubber Silicon Labels
Showcasing its plastic tags, PVC promotional key chains, rubber-silicon labels, small hangers for ties, belts, socks, plastic accessories and handles, J.V. Plastics (BD) Ltd. witnessed good footfall at its booth. “This is a new market for us and a good number of visitors are visiting our stall. We have been dealing in this market for the past 5 years and now we have our own office here,” shares Kapil Lalwani, Director of the company, who is now planning to setup a factory in Gazipur to manufacture hangers and silicon labels. “By the end of August this year, the factory’s construction will start, the total investment for which is around US $ 500,000,” informs Kapil.
Jattashankar Industries-India exhibits Dyed Polyester Yarns & Elastics
Exposing its products for the first time in Bangladesh, Mumbai-based Jattashankar Industries that deals in polyester dyed yarns making applications for labels, elastics, shirting, suiting, etc., ventured into elastics last year, and is now making both plain and jacquard elastics used in men’s underwears. “This is our first time in Dhaka; the dyed yarn usage is not very big so the order quantities are generally small, which is not viable to import. If we get a stockist cum agent in Bangladesh then we can sell our products here as well,” shares Jattashankar Poddar, Managing Director. Presently, the company’s dyed yarn capacity is 500 tonnes/month and in elastics, 1 lakh metres per day. “Within a year, we are going to double our elastic capacity. Right now, we are just into woven elastics but now we are venturing into knitted elastics as well,” informs Poddar.
KK Fashion Hangers-India displays Glossy Plastic Hangers; gets good response
Participating for the first time, Delhi-based Kushal Karyashala, producers of KK Fashion Hangers, attracted some good enquiries from the visitors. Sharing his views, Ankur Mangla says, “The reason for participating in this exhibition is to explore the Bangladesh market as we really don’t know who the people are and who we should target? This fair is the right platform to meet prospective customers; once we build up good client base here then we will consider opening our office in Bangladesh.”
Plastic hangers for all kinds of garments such as suits, blazers, trousers and ladies tops/dresses are being produced by the company. In another six months, it will add kids and lingerie hangers as well. “We want to replace wooden hangers with plastic hangers as people have many complaints with wooden hangers. We are making heavy weight plastic hangers which can take the load of the garments better than the traditional wooden hangers,” shares Ankur, according to whom, his hangers are very well liked by the visitors but they felt that the price is on the higher side. “We give a lot of surface treatment to our hangers so that they have a glossy and aesthetic look that complements the garments, so the price is bound to be higher,” justifies Ankur. The company is producing 100,000 pieces of hangers per month at its 4 months old factory in India. “We have been manufacturing hangers for the past 30 years but due to some unavoidable circumstances we had to shut down our factory, but now we have revived our hanger business,” he adds.
Jayeshkumar Rasiklal & Co.-India showcases cotton & poly-cotton shirting fabrics at competitive pricing
This Mumbai-based company showcased its poly-cotton and cotton fabrics for shirting. “We are exhibiting for the first time in Bangladesh; we are currently selling our fabrics in Bangladesh through Kolkata,” informs Kunal S. Sheth, according to whom, a lot of good business leads have come to him through the fair. “We have a cotton fabric brand called Monza and a poly-cotton brand called Carolon. The price of our Giza-rich fabric varies from Rs. 180 to Rs. 300 per metre for some qualities like 100 satin and mercerised cotton; my wholesale price even goes up to Rs. 495. We export our fabrics to Hong Kong and Middle East,” informs Kunal.
Sarika Trading-India displays eco-sustainable trouser hooks
This company exhibited its range of trouser fixers in different shapes and sizes. “We have been selling our products in Bangladesh from past three years. We are now looking at opening our own office here so that we can develop some nominated business; if one is nominated then there is no problem in pricing,” states Nitin Sachdev, who offers pant hooks in various metals such as brass, stainless steel, aluminium and iron. “All our hooks are nickel and lead-free,” he informs.
