A journey started in 1990 by Nadia Benedetti, Managing Director, Studiotex Ltd. as an agent from Italy, now exports US $ 35 million per annum, which includes garment manufacturing units and a buying agency, with sourcing accounting for US $ 20 million. For decades, Bangladesh has been a home away from home for Nadia.
Though Nadia had been sourcing from Bangladesh for some time, it was the bleak economy of 1996 which triggered the search for a more competitive sourcing destinations. Having learned the nuances of sourcing from her father, she took it upon herself to venture to Bangladesh to open her first buying office. “The increasing client base and their demand for more competitively priced products were instrumental in exploring Bangladesh as a sourcing hub,” says Nadia. The emphasis was on basic T-shirts at an FOB of US $ 3.5 to US $ 4. Recently, Nadia has added sweaters sourcing for her Italian and other European buyers at an average price of US $ 15, depending on the intricacies of styling, material and washing. “We definitely follow fashion – the emphasis is on styling,” she adds.
“We try to work with factories and suppliers that are dependable and are able to meet price, quality and decent working environment standards. Factory compliance is constantly being upgraded; there are always areas that we strive to improve on, so we constantly enforce compliance guidance with our vendors.”
Working with retail clientele such as department stores, in addition to apparel importers, has allowed the company to select and work with vendors best suited to its clients’ profile. “Normally, chain stores give very tight pricing for garments along with high volumes; accordingly we have to look for the vendors who match their price points. On the other hand brands that have low volumes want to have lots of value-added elements,” states Nadia.
“Going beyond sourcing products, we sometimes give design inspiration to our buyers from our existing product development; clients also send us the sketches, which we create counter samples from and send them back for approvals. They may approve the counter samples as is or ask for modifications, as long as they are not too extensive. The actual order placement process against the development samples may take a longer time to secure,” continues Nadia.
Like many entrepreneurs in Bangladesh, Nadia too expanded her business by diversifying into manufacturing, thus setting up Valmont Fashions, which began in 2007 in collaboration with local partners from Gazipur. Already doing exports of US $ 15 million annually, the manufacturing unit has 8 lines for bottoms and 8 lines for T-shirts. The move has given the buying office greater options to cater to more product categories beyond T-shirts, and sweaters are one of them. “In our sweater section, we have 500 fine gauge machines. It’s a reasonable size factory and is independent from our buying house. Besides, executing our orders it has its own set of buyers,” shares Nadia who wants to increase the volumes both in her sourcing business as well as in manufacturing. This will further grow product value in terms of additions that fetch better prices.
Having spent more than two decades residing in Dhaka, Nadia appreciates the resilience of the Bangladesh exporters. She shared that year on year Bangladesh is improving in terms of manufacturing facilities with huge investments being made in the garment sector. “There are some amazingly good factories and today the country is manufacturing all kinds of products. If I compare Bangladesh with other sourcing destinations like China, India, Cambodia, Thailand, Pakistan, I feel my confidence level is greatest in Bangladesh,” opines Nadia.
The factories with whom she has been collaborating for a long time have invested a lot in infrastructure, technology, safety and other capital improvements. They have also focused on being compliant with client demands, understanding that buyers would stop giving them orders if their standard practices were not up to par. “We try to work with factories and suppliers that are dependable and are able to meet price, quality and decent working environment standards. The rising wages due to compliance-driven requirements set by clients in Bangladesh are not understood by them, thereby causing export pricing of finished garments to rise substantially, leaving the manufacturer to absorb these additional costs and be drastically squeezed by shrinking gross profit margins. Factory compliance is constantly being upgraded; there are always areas that we strive to improve on, so we constantly enforce compliance guidance with our vendors,” concludes Nadia.
