The key is that the costs of the new features are less than added value for the customers.
Juha Laurio, President and CEO of Lindstrom Group talks on various subjects related to the textile industry, as he speaks to Fibre2Fashion Correspondent Manushi Gandhi.
Synopsis:
Lindstrom Group has its headquaters in Finland and was established in 1848. It is a leading multinational B-to-B textile services provider. Today it operates in 21 countries. It offers mat, hygiene, towel, workwear, restaurant textile, personal protective equipment services.
Juha Laurio is the President and CEO of Lindstrom Group since March 2008. He has helped the group achieve a considerable growth with his management experience. Prior to Lindstrom, Mr. Laurio was working as President at Perlos Group. He holds a Master of Science degree in Technology, Mechanical Engineering from Helsinki University of Technology.
Excerpts:
You are a B-to-B textile services provider. Can you please elaborate the term "B-to-B textile services provider"? What are the various types of textile services required by your clients?
We provide comprehensive workwear service for other businesses. For any company or business that requires its employees to wear any kind of workwear, we are providing a full workwear service based on weekly rental fee. What this means is that we provide our customers with not only the garments but also design of collection, fitting, washing, repairs, warehousing and delivery of the garments – and at the end of the day the disposal of the garments. The service is based on a rental concept in which the customer is freed from making capital investment and customer is paying weekly rental only for the garments needed at the moment. At the same time the customer’s personnel is enjoying tidy, practical and good-looking workwear.
Do you believe that even today, there are certain regions that have a monopoly over a specific thing?
Our business concept is unique in India. Today the penetration rate of our service in Indian market is still very low and the whole concept is not yet very widely known. Naturally we are working on this and we see that there is very much potential. Our biggest challenge is to grow the awareness of our service within the companies that are still handling workwear issues in an old-fashioned way.
What factors are to be kept in mind while making a workwear so that they sell reasonably?
The most important aspects regarding workwear are protection, fit and comfort. When our end users feel good, comfortable and safe in their workwear, we have succeeded. Our work wear service offering can cover a wide range of industries with varying requirements regarding protection and safety. On the one hand, we provide garments for pharmaceutical industry, and on the other hand for heavy industry and for example welding, which have very different requirements.Taking these differences into consideration is essential. It is also always very important to ensure that workwear is good looking and supports the image of our customers.
Anyhow, I would like to highlight that workwear itself is only part of the solution – the service makes it a complete solution.
What is the scope for restaurant textile services and workwear textile services?
Textile services outlook is very positive. Our clients want to focus on their core competence and outsource textile service to a professional company in order to make their every-day life easier. The beauty of our business is that companies in all businesses and companies of all sizes are our potential customers.
We are operating with a unique concept and seek to further strengthen our foothold in India.
Do you feel that we still need advancement in the process of recycling textiles?
Of course. We are constantly looking for alternatives to more efficient use of textiles and recycling innovations for the worn-out garments. Our vision target is to recycle 90% of textile waste by the year 2016. Currently the recycle rate is 73%.
In terms of supply, specifically in the apparel/textile making industry, which is that commodity/area which still needs to develop?
All areas of the supply chain need to be constantly developed in order to constantly further improve speed, quality, flexibility and cost efficiency. We are also constantly working on with this never ending challenge with our supply chain in order to have efficient and sustainable supply.
Do you feel that the textile market has been suffering because the rising costs? What are your suggestions to curb this?
With our service concept textiles are used more efficiently and that is one of the things that help overcome the rising costs. As I mentioned earlier, there are still many opportunities to improve supply chain efficiency in a sustainable way.
Have you ever thought of entering the B-to-C segment?
Our concept is designed for B-to-B segment. We are experiencing such a nice growth with this segment and outlook is very positive. Therefore we want to focus to B-to-B segment.
Which are the regions that have maximum potential to give you better business and why?
We see business opportunities everywhere where there are companies using workwear. We also value customers of all sizes. Naturally in big industrial cities there are more potential customers and therefore we have established our operations so far in India to Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai and Panchkula. We also see it important to have a comprehensive network across India as some of our customers have operations also across India. India is very interesting market as Indian companies are very open for new ideas like our unique service concept.
Wearable technology is the new in-thing today. What do you think about its prospects in work wear?
There are constant developments all the time also within fibers, accessories and workwear itself. We are studying the development constantly on this as well. I am confident that there will be new these kinds of features also in workwear in the future. The key is that the costs of the new features are less than added value for the customers.
Published on: 11/07/2013
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.
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