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Interview with Andrew Lo

Andrew Lo
Andrew Lo
CEO
Crystal Group
Crystal Group

Bangladesh is attractive in terms of labour cost and free trade terms
Crystal Group, a Hong Kong-based apparel manufacturer, is an ardent believer of nurturing profit, people and planet for growth. Andrew Lo, CEO of Crystal Group, shares the company philosophies with respect to international trade, sourcing destinations, strategic relationship and technology with Mary Christine Joy.

You also seem to have high expectations from Bangladesh and Cambodia. Why do you think is Bangladesh an attractive investment destination?

Bangladesh is somewhat attractive in terms of labour cost and favoured trade terms. We were comparatively conservative in early investment there, for we were new to the culture and environment. But after some years of operating experience, we plan for a steady growth for the coming five years forward to match up with our multi-country-of-origin strategy in coping with different customer needs.
 

Crystal Group understands the importance of sustainability. Can you let us know your ideas on sustainability and the role played by the group towards achievement of this objective?

Sustainability has become a new competitive edge for Crystal Group, with which we leverage our corporate culture to drive all employees to strive for balancing the triple bottomlines of the company, i.e. profit, people and planet. Profit is an important source for sustaining our growth, supporting the livelihood of our employees, and development of the community. So, we have to be innovative to challenge the status quo to provide goods and services that customers favourably regard as value for money. People are an important capital; our employees are always at the heart of our success. Believing that trust and empowerment could help unleash the potential of our talents, we employ various personal development and leadership coaching programmes to enhance their personal skills, enable them to envision a career development with Crystal Group, and attain their own accomplishment and values. With such a reliable workforce, we are contributing better to the community where we operate. The planet provides us with the resources to nurture a better living, where we have the obligation to protect it in turn. To us, being environmental is not just a good cause, but also betterment of our management efficiency in terms of resource management, cost reduction and productivity improvement. All in all, the concept of sustainability and formulation of business strategy embracing it helps us to perform better and win in the market.

What is the importance of local supply chains for international businesses, especially in outsourced destinations?

Local supply chain capability is important in terms of: 1. Enabling quicker response to the market; 2. Ensuring stable supply of materials; 3. Reducing footprints due to logistics; 4. Benefiting from trade agreements where locally sourced materials is favoured.

Political stability and free trade agreement favourability is the most important thing when choosing a sourcing destination. Do you agree?

This is certain for any business, especially when we are in a globalised world, working with international customers. Free trade agreement favourability can improve the price competitiveness whereas allowing us to leverage on country specific strengths and currencies. Political stability is of crucial importance to our investment as we always look for longer term development in the region.

How important is strategic relationship in this business?

Strategic relationship in business ensures seamless operations along the supply chain that eventually brings in multi-wins for every partner: 1. Transparent communication on planning to foster growth in the supply chain members; 2. Efficient cooperation along the supply chain to reduce costs and hence improved efficiency; 3. Quick response to the market for consumers and hence brand loyalty to ensure stable orders; 4. Customers favour strong suppliers who could offer totality of services from within the supply chain.

How important is Vietnam as a destination for textile manufacturers based in China and Hong Kong?

With Vietnam growing more mature in terms of business environment and export trade agreement, logistics, infrastructure, and workforce, it is our new star for the forthcoming growth plan.

What can be done by production houses to improve the factor of speed in the entire manufacturing process?

At Crystal Group, we deploy information technology to speed up information dissemination from sales order placement to payment arrangement. The application of IT allows the supply chain to be virtually integrated seamlessly and reduce redundancy. Lean production management is adopted in our production to 'straighten' the process flow. The use of single-piece flow model by automated rover system is well-illustrating the improvement of productivity ranged by 20-35 per cent. On the shop floors, in addition to lean system and IT, innovative technologies and ideas are as important to enhance our productivity and speed. In short, we have set innovation centres and R&D teams to seek for further shortening of production time. Through development of automated machines and other process re-engineering, we are striving for further improvement even down to a second's reduction, as this still accounts for huge savings for us.

I would like to quote one your earlier statements - "We cannot be green if we cannot sustain our margins". How does income contribute to sustainability in a business?

As a private company, we opt to maintain independence for longer-term strategic development instead of sacrificing for short-term benefits. Hence, the income or profit is vital not only for our shareholders, but is also an essential resource for ploughing back our business sustainability.
Published on: 01/04/2015

DISCLAIMER: All views and opinions expressed in this column are solely of the interviewee, and they do not reflect in any way the opinion of Fibre2Fashion.com.