From a small garment factory 33 years back, Pacific Jeans has come a long, long way to be counted as Bangladesh’s top premium jeans manufacturer with annual turnover of around US $ 400 million, producing over 36 million pairs of jeans yearly from its five integrated set-ups and employing a workforce of 28,000 people. Apparel Online caught up with the dynamic & young Director of Pacific Jeans, Syed M Tanvir, to know his take on the denim industry of Bangladesh and Pacific’s endeavours to remain the innovator and trendsetter as it is in denim manufacturing, and various other issues.
Humble beginning, led by a visionary
Pacific Jeans owes its existence to NZN Fashion Ltd., started in 1984 by Tanvir’s father M. Nasir Uddin (Chairman of Pacific Jeans) with only 500 people to stitch and ship unwashed jeans for an Italian brand as there was no denim laundry in the country then. Subsequently in 1986, Nasir established the first denim laundry in Bangladesh.
“He has focused on what he wanted to do and believes in continuously adding value to the three Ps – Product, Process and People, to stand out from the crowd. Since the start of denim revolution, we were always the first to start anything related to jeans manufacturing, be it new technologies, processes or product innovation/development, to deliver the best,” maintains Tanvir about his father and Pacific’s goals as the market leader.
In 1994, Nasir set up Pacific Jeans in Chittagong Export Processing Zone with 1,500 people to continuously evolve and expand. His vision and relentless efforts to promote the Bangladesh apparel industry in the global arena has earned him 14 consecutive ‘National Export’ trophies and ‘Business Person of the Year’ by the Government of Bangladesh and Export Excellence Award from the Hong Kong Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC) in the year 2010, 2011 and 2012.
Sourcing fabrics has its advantages
For a name of Pacific’s stature, with its very own cutting, stitching, washing and finishing facilities, the absence of a fabric mill is very striking. But Tanvir has his own take on why not a denim fabric mill. “To make fabrics profitably, one has to put spinning facility and the investment required to establish spinning, weaving and dyeing is not worth the effort. Besides, the moment you come up with a mill, other mills start treating you as a competitor. Hence, we decided to make strategic partnerships with good mills instead where we can use the concerned mill’s strengths effectively,” explains Tanvir. Having one’s own mill is a definite advantage though in terms of lead time, more so in this age of fast fashion, accepts Tanvir.
Pacific Jeans currently imports almost 95 per cent of fabric from overseas and there are reasons for it. “The local mills are on the right track and doing very good development, but the kind of fabrics we work with, they still need some time to achieve those standards,” Tanvir maintains.
Research & Development
According to Tanvir, Bangladesh has reached its optimum in terms of denim production and from here on it will be all about efficiency, product development and innovation which would determine whether one is in the business or not in future. “Though a lot of companies are still banking on cutting prices to get business, but that’s not the correct approach,” underlines Tanvir, citing example of Turkey. Despite scoring much lower than Bangladesh in terms of cost efficiency, this transcontinental country in Eurasia has a major share in denim production and export globally, thanks to value addition.
Pacific has set up its own PD team dubbed ‘Pacific Jeans Innovation Centre’, which works in close collaboration with the leading fashion designers of premium denim brands from US, EU and Japan to come up with value-added innovations. “We also have strategic partners in different locations from where we get real time information on trends, forecast and developments,” adds Tanvir, who is also a strong believer in sustainability as the true enabler of business growth.
Sustainability – the bottom-line
Considered a pioneer in sustainable technology in the Bangladesh denim sector, for Pacific Jeans, sustainability is not a trend, but commitment! “For us sustainability is very simple; it’s the commitment of all the stakeholders for a better future. We believe the natural resources consumed by our business operations must be restored to the environment so that our presence will not be detrimental to future life. We commit to future corporate growth that will balance economic progress while instilling a culture of sustainable development for the environment and community,” maintains Tanvir. To validate its corporate environmental commitment, Pacific Jeans has undertaken a host of initiatives – recycling toxic water, investing in high-tech machines, highly reflective flooring and energy-efficient light source to become more energy-saver. “We are also generating energy using waste heat which has substantially reduced our energy consumption,” says Tanvir, who does not detest brands using sustainability as a marketing tool as long as it truly believes in sustainability and is committed to the cause. “But if you just have the buzz word to sell five more pieces, it’s not done,” Tanvir reinforces.
Pacific Jeans also boasts of sophisticated in-house laboratory which performs more than 40 different kinds of physical tests, chemical tests, dimensional stability tests and colourfastness tests conducted by certified lab technicians.
Products for the future
Establishing itself as the global hub of denim manufacturing, Tanvir feels it’s perhaps time garment manufacturers start looking at other promising product categories. “If I were a new entrant, I would definitely go for activewear or lingerie because that’s where the growth is going to happen,” maintains Tanvir.
Tanvir’s observation is aptly reflected by new information from Morgan Stanley speculating that the “athleisure” clothing market will make up to US $ 83 billion in sales by 2020. Morgan Stanley’s assessment attributed the projected growth in sales to the rising interest in health and fitness across the globe. It also found that people everywhere are wearing athletic clothing as leisurewear irrespective of if they are actually working out in it, thereby increasing activewear’s demand and popularity further.
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