Foreseeing the demand for value-added products in recent times, Fashion Globe is marketing itself for manufacturing most up-to-date washed bottoms. After gaining hands-on experience by working with big groups, Md. Nazmul Kabir started his own buying operations by the name of Fashion Globe in the year 2006 and is currently a US $ 40 million company. Within a year, the group opened up its factory by the name of FGS Knitwear, producing half a million pieces per month. The unit also has an in-house automatic screen printing machine with 12-colour manual printing and dyeing setup.
Driven by his experience and passion, Nazmul ventured into a bottom manufacturing facility after stabilizing its knit factory. “Alcott was our first buyer who placed an order of 10,000 pieces and it’s been just two years, and we have received good response,” says Nazmul. The manufacturing facility has 10 lines with a capacity to produce 2,50,000 pieces every month. To satisfy the remaining demand of 2,50,000 pieces, the group outsources from 6 factories in Dhaka itself, therefore shipping a total of half-a-million pieces every month, majorly to European and Spanish markets. “We have a dedicated compliance team who evaluates and selects factories. They also make sure that everything is done as per the standards by doing surprise visits to all those factories,” elaborates Nazmul.
About 60% of FGS’s capacity is dedicated to their Spanish buyer – Pull & Bear. “We are handling 75% of Pull & Bear’s export out of the country,” shares Nazmul. Pull & Bear is an urban clothing brand focusing on young people, offering mostly comfortable and easy to wear garments, available in mid-level price range. Belonging to the Inditex Group which includes other Spanish brands such as Zara, Massimo Dutti, Bershka and many more, Pull & Bear is present in 67 markets and has a network of 792 stores.
Apart from catering to the Spanish markets, FGS’s second chief buyer which is satisfying its remaining capacity is a European brand – Alcott, sharing a similar retail image as Pull & Bear and is suitable for dynamic young people wearing casual articles of clothing, as its tag line suggests ALCOTT – Free to be! The brand is currently present in Italy, Spain, France, Cyprus, Georgia, Guadalupe, India and Syria.
As both the brands are catering to the young segment of people, Fashion Globe has installed its own laundry unit with a capacity of 20,000 pieces per day, to take care of the buyer’s latest innovative fashion demands. “Different types of washes makes a denim bottom hit with the buyers, and to impart the effect perfectly, almost all the bottoms are washed in our own laundry including the ones which are stitched by other factories as well,” points out Nazmul.
Some of the most recent washes, developed by Fashion Globe’s design team and can be seen on Alcott’s and Pull & Bear’s latest collections, are water proof finish, leather finish, fluorescent dyeing, acid wash, ice wash, mild washed and worn out look and enzyme wash. Categorically for the women section, Fashion Globe is manufacturing a lot of knitted bottoms with latest finishes such as cool and oil wash which gives an old garage type dirty look to the garment.
The company is currently sourcing 80% of its fabric from Bangladesh itself, in order to ship out orders as fast as possible. “We try and use local fabric as much as possible in order to cater to the buyers’ demand of faster deliveries. Especially for menswear, we are shipping out delivery in 60-65 days,” confirms Nazmul. Most of the factories are dealing directly with buyers, and somehow small buying offices are losing their business, as both the buyer and the manufacturer doesn’t want any middle-man to share their profits. Looking at the trend, Nazmul has plans to double its denim wear capacity by adding 670 more machines and will eventually reduce its sourcing from the other factories by 2014.
