Once renowned for predominantly making basic apparels, more and more garment makers in Bangladesh are now foraying into exciting and new product categories to command better prices and expand markets as Bangladesh looks to stamp its dominance as the apparel manufacturing powerhouse.

In light of Export Promotion Bureau(EPB)’s relevance towards furthering the larger goals of the apparel manufacturing industry, which has now set an ambitious target of US $ 100 billion in exports by 2030, AHM Ahsan, Vice-Chairman & CEO of EPB, speaks exclusively to Apparel Resources (AR) on wide-ranging issues pertaining to EPB’s objectives and deliverables towards promoting garment exports through penetrating market insights, advocacy, promotional endeavours and many more....

In the third part of our Industry Insider series, Team Apparel Resources had a fireside chat with Sridhar Rajagopal, Chief Mentor of REDEFINE, a Project Management firm that is working with over 40 companies in India, Bangladesh, Mauritius, Ethiopia and Jordan. Sridhar goes on to speak at length on the topic that will always remain relevant in the industry – ‘people’ because businesses surely are ‘by the people and for the people’. Here are the excerpts…

China might not be able to reach to the peak heights in its manufacturing industry again as labour is becoming expensive there and geo-political equation with Western world is not stable, hence investors and sourcing companies are finding alternate base. On the other hand, the apparel imports of USA, EU, Canada and other major apparel markets in the world are rapidly nearing to pre-pandemic level. Factories across India and Bangladesh are reporting to have booked their entire capacities till December this year as they go for further expansions to develop more capacities next year.

Shareful Islam Palash founded his own fashion label mOWN to present his inspirations in a modern way with a touch of Sufi mysticism. His debut collection featured rich hues of red and yellow contrasting with stark stone-like greys.

The global airport retail market which was valued at US $ 20.1 billion in 2021, owing to lockdowns and travel restrictions, is expected to more than double to US $ 41.6 billion by 2027, as has been revealed by data shared from Research and Market owing to rise in air traffic, expansion of airport infrastructure, and high customer demands for luxurious products. Here’s looking at the key factors driving the boost in the global airport retailing market owing to the post-pandemic travel boom.

In an exhaustive and freewheeling conversation with Team Apparel Resources recently, Sunil Arora, a renowned fashion technologist and Co-Founder of Trace Network Labs touched upon key topics within fashion metaverse, NFTs, blockchain, trends and future outlook of virtual and physical clothing industry.

Apparel Resources (AR) gets into a candid discussion with the dynamic Managing Director of Pacific Jeans, Syed Md Tanvir to explore the leading jeans’ manufacturer’s growth journey in Bangladesh from a small set-up to gaining supremacy in the realm of denim jeans exports, importance of PD and innovations in denim, the current market dynamics and last but not the least how the company is positioning itself in the existing scenario to make the most of the opportunities.

With LDC graduation round the corner, Bangladesh is yet to strike trade deals with those who matter even if debate rages amongst experts whether the focus should be on FTAs, PTAs or RTAs. However, of late, the country is apparently shifting the focus on countries that would help reap rich dividends even as garment makers call for policy support for safe sailing and complementing the trade agreements, which would be signed in the days to come.