Bangladesh’s sweater exports have grown substantially in a span of seven years, from US $ 3.18 billion in FY ’16 to US $ 5.94 billion in FY ’23. This translates into 9.34 per cent CAGR, which is considered a commendable growth rate seeing a lot of global disruptions that have happened in the last three years. MNR Group – a leading sweater manufacturing group in Bangladesh founded in the 1990s – has surpassed the national CAGR and has been growing annually by around 12-13 per cent for the last three years.
MNR Group runs three manufacturing facilities in and around Dhaka – MNR Sweaters Ltd., MNR Design Ltd., and Welldone Apparel. MNR Design Ltd., is a LEED Gold Certified facility, while MNR Sweaters Ltd., will soon receive LEED Platinum certification. Interestingly, the group produces sweaters ranging from 12 gg to 18 gg and a few notable categories are pullovers, sweaters, cardigans, jumpers, vests, scarves and woolen cap sweaters for men, women and kids. The production capacity of the group across three units is around 800,000 pieces a month which helps the group clock annual revenues of US $ 75 million.
Focus is on luxury sweater segment
Working with luxury knitwear buyers has never been a forte of Bangladesh; however, companies like MNR have now shifted their focus to work with luxury sweater customers. According to Golam Mostafa, Managing Director, MNR Group, 50 per cent of the group’s portfolio caters to the luxury segment that uses premium raw materials such as Cashmere and Merino Wool. The unit prices go up to US $ 65 while basic and mid-premium sweaters are priced between US $ 7 to US $ 16.
For a country that’s tagged as a ‘cheap manufacturing destination’, bringing the shift in the mindset of premium and luxury clothing brands wasn’t a simple development.
“When we produced a Cashmere line for Lidl three years ago, we got confidence that we can produce it for other brands as well. Then we started working with John Richmond, Silvian Heach and other renowned Italian luxury fashion brands,” commented Golam while interacting with Team AR, adding, “Our strength lies in working with Italian yarns that testifies our efforts in the luxury segment.”
Technology is an integral part of MNR’s production floors
Across three factories, MNR Group houses around 1,300 high-end Jacquard machines majorly from Shima Seiki and around 1,360 dual-linking machines with overlock / bar-tack / flat-lock / auto-placket facilities.
Since these dual linking machines are advanced machines, the quality of the finished products is superior due to more precise stitching and consistent tension control, as well as these machines require less manual intervention and skilled labour, leading to enormous savings in labour costs by around 18 per cent as compared to conventional machines and increased efficiency by around 15 per cent.
The group also incorporates 3D virtual sampling in its product development process that reduces its sampling time from around 28 days to just 5-7 days.
“We are also in the process of receiving a LEED Platinum certificate for our MNR Sweaters wherein we have
partnered with Swiss company Steiger to install knitting machines that can produce 16-18 colours which is not
possible on Shima Seiki machines. Since our customers require a lot of mixed blends and different colours, this
installation is expanding our horizon of manufacturing,” informed Golam Mostafa, Managing Director, MNR Group.
