Though it has been less than a decade since denim manufacturing started in Bangladesh, the country has progressed from a conversion destination of five pocket basic denim to high-end washed denim using uniquely developed fabric. The change is no doubt coming about because of growing number of denim mills which are buying fashion items from Bangladesh and increased laundry facilities supporting the country’s movement up the value chain to produce fashion denims, from 4.5 oz to 14 oz, slubs, multi counts, stretch with latest finishes like coatings. The country, known to be catering to volume and basic merchandise buyers like Walmart, Gap and H&M, has now fashion merchandise buyers like M&S, C&A, Zara, Next, Lindex, Nautica, Tommy Hilfiger, Wrangler, Lee to mention a few.
The ability to handle large volumes at shorter lead times and at the most competitive price is making Bangladesh a desirable destination for sourcing denim jeans. Though the country’s top manufacturers are moving towards fashion products, the strength of this country is still in its ability to produce volumes and 70 per cent of produce is for mass market. Even the 30 per cent fashion that they do is more than what their counterparts in India or Pakistan can produce, mostly because of the manufacturing scales.
To cope up with the reducing lead times and high fashion demand, the bigger players decided to go for vertical integration. Reasons Syed Naved Husain, Group Director & CEO, Beximco Ltd., which is producing 20 million metres per annum, “If one wants to use dum-dum (a word coined by Syed to represent basic fabric) denim, then it’s cheaper to import from companies like Arvind in India or Crescent in Pakistan, but we are not doing basic five pocket denim and have invested a lot on our weaving and washing setup. In our weaving we have put lots of dobbys, multi coloured looms, seer sucker. At that time people said it would reduce our efficiencies and we replied that we are more focused on relevance than efficiency, the ultimate goal is to sell fashion and not yarn and fabric. Today, we are selling our denim products to Zara, H&M, S Oliver and the likes; the two companies to which we don’t sell denim are Levis and Wrangler because we are more into fashion and these two go for more basic stuff.” He adds, “We consume all the denim fabric we produce. We also import yarn and denim from India, China and Pakistan. All the special fabrics are done in-house like Nitrogen injection in our indigo range and Bull Denim in a variety of reactive colours ranging from 10 oz to 13 oz/ Yd, in fact we do a lot of customised fabric as well.”
[bleft]“To cope up with reducing lead times and high fashion demand, all the major players have decided to go for vertical integration. We consume all the denim fabric we produce and also import yarn and denim from India, China and Pakistan.” – Syed Naved Husain Group Director & CEO, Beximco Ltd.[/bleft]
Mahmud Group, established around 2006 is again a vertical setup. The company started its own spinning in 2008 to support its weaving division that produces 18 million yards per year and subsequently restarted its garmenting division. “We are selling 75 per cent of denim fabric within Bangladesh and 25 per cent is for our in-house consumption. We produce specialized fabrics like cross hatch, slub denim and stretch denim, basically fashion, catering to brands like H&M, Next, Esprit, Kiabi, Lindex to mention a few,” says Gazi Mahbubul Alam, Director, Mahmud Group, according to whom vertical integration helps in maintain good quality, timely delivery and customized service to the clients.
Though Bangladesh is known for its cheap labour, the denim companies have opted to be fully automated be it cutting, sewing or finishing. “All the denim manufacturers have good automated setups which help them in minimizing rejections, reducing dependency on workers, optimizing shop floor space for manufacturing, not to ignore that it helps maintain quality and on-time deliveries,” adds Mahbubul.
[bleft]“We sell 75 per cent of denim fabric within Bangladesh and 25 per cent is for our in-house consumption. All the denim manufacturers have good automated setups which help them in minimizing rejections, reducing dependency on workers, maintaining quality and on-time deliveries.” – Gazi Mahbubul Alam Director, Mahmud Group[/bleft]
Definitely the strength of Bangladesh is to cater to the mass market. Opines Syed Asad Ali, Director, Armana Group, a US $ 120 million company and a big player in denim garments with over 6000 machines, producing 1.2 million units a month out of which 70 per cent is denim bottoms. “We have the kind of scales that helps us give such a price to the buyers which no other nation on date can offer. I cater to smaller styles, maybe 2000 pieces a style, but the core of my business cannot be that. The very fact that GAP brand has re-launched its denim line Under 1969 using vendors out of Bangladesh-itself speaks a lot about our ability.” The company is no longer restricted to basic products. All the major exporters who ship and manufacture denim today have the capability to do any kind of finish, at par with what is done in Hong Kong or even South America. The strength of Bangladesh is that it is investment-driven, and so the country is well equipped to contribute to the growth in the fashion area as well.
The majority of the players still believe that it is very important that garment manufacturers in Bangladesh should keep working on their core strength, which is as converters. “If one is looking at a vertically integrated setup then be prepared for huge investments; in my view it is obviously cheaper to outsource fabric than setting up your own fabric plant,” reasons Asad Ali who is sourcing fabric from India, Pakistan, China, Turkey and Taiwan. With the European Union opening up duty free access to even those garments that are manufactured using imported fabric, exporters in Bangladesh see greater business ahead using imported fabric.
[bleft]There are 8 vertically integrated Denim units in Bangladesh – Partex, Beximco, Hameem, Opex, Royal Denim, Sha Sha, Bengal Denim and Mahmud Group – which combined together produce approximately 150 million metres/annum. Partex is the biggest with a capacity of 22 million metres/annum.[/bleft]
Another big denim bottom manufacturer Ananta, established in 1992 is mainly catering to the US and European market. Presently the company has close to 4500 sewing machines, three stitching plants and a laundry plant. Besides this, the company also has one button unit, one sweater factory and one suit manufacturing unit. “We are now expanding our denim sewing lines; we will be reaching 100 sewing lines within next one year which will take us to a total of 6000 machines,” shares Syed Ishtiaq Alam, Director of the company. The decision to go for vertical integration in denim according to Ishtiaq depends upon the opportunities, but seeing the scarcity of energy and other infrastructure problems, he has been compelled to think twice before going for a backward integration. “Putting up a textile manufacturing setup means a huge investment project, which depends on financing, so one really has to think in terms of ROI,” he says. However, he does add, “For an individual company it doesn’t really matter that you manufacture garments and keep sourcing fabric from within your country or by importing from other countries. But for a country it is important to have strong backward integration because the buyers require shorter lead times and quicker decision making.”
Integration, not only means backward but also forward integration into washes and finishes for greater value and there is no doubt that the industry has invested in this area. In fact, buyers in the country feel that the increased focus on washing has added to the demand of Bangladeshi denim. Beximco Group has invested in ozone machines, as the washing plant consumes a lot of water and the company is determined to be environment-friendly. The Mahmud Group setup a washing plant in 2009 for garment washing which has production capacity of 40,000 pcs. per day of some of the most innovative washes from stone wash to silicon and direct dye.
[bleft]“We add value at the garment stage with the support of a product development team that works only to create new finishes taking inspiration from global trends we can offer some very unique finishes.” – Salahuddin Ahmed Director, M&J Group[/bleft]
With two laundries dedicated to denim washes, the US $ 70 million M&J Group manufacturing one million denim bottoms a month is reputed to have one of the best washing facility in Bangladesh. “It doesn’t matter whether the fabric comes from Bangladesh, Pakistan or India, we add value at the garment stage with the support of a product development team that works only to create new finishes taking inspiration from global trends as a result of which we can offer in some very unique finishes,” says Salahuddin Ahmed, Director, M&J Group. Some of the washes that this WRAP certified company is capable of include enzyme bleach wash, enzyme tinting wash and rinse wash.
The company can also offer varied special effects like foam effect, resin treatment & curing, latest 3D effects, pressing and ozone processing. With the increasing demand for its value added denim the company is looking to double its capacity over the next 3 to 4 years to take the production to 2 million pieces every month.
[bleft]“The decision to go for vertical integration depends on the opportunities. For a country it is important to have strong backward integration because the buyers require shorter lead times.” – Syed Ishtiaq Alam Director, Ananta Group[/bleft]
One of the other major players in denim washes in Bangladesh is, Denim Expert Limited. Setup in 1988 the company is fully equipped to cater to all needs of dry to wet processes. Denim Expert has a production capacity of 30,000 jeans pcs. in a day. Working with all the products from hand brushing to 3D crinkles, dark rinse to super bleach, the company has 30 sets of front loading washer, hydro extractors & dryer, over 100 different types of brushing, grinding, scraping & spray equipments and all high-tech machines ready to meet tough workloads with uncompromized quality.
Indeed, Bangladesh which started as a CMT denim manufacturing country has undoubtedly evolved as a total solution provider in this category. Albeit usage of any fabric, is buyers’ call as they nominate the suppliers, still the denim garment manufacturers who opted for backward integration were well received by the buyers in Bangladesh as they went for best facilities in weaving and processing and also extensive product development. The one’s which are still sticking to garmenting by outsourcing fabrics are just waiting for the right time and opportunity as though the investment are high but they do realize that advantages are galore in being vertically integrated. In fact, the USD 100 million Sunman Group is ready to commission a denim fabric unit in another six months time. Having 28 factories for bottoms, shirts, sportswear, polo knit and sweaters, the company sees an advantage in going vertical.
Bharat Tex Special Report 2026 
