Cotton shirt producer Esquel receives Oeko-Tex certificate

The corporate philosophy of the Esquel Group, one of the world’s leading cotton shirt producers, has for many years been orientated towards maximum product quality and sustainable production. Its major production base in Foshan, China of the company have been certified as environmentally friendly and socially-acceptable production sites in accordance with the OEKOTEX  Standard 1000.

Excellent Qualities

The Esquel Group was founded in 1978 and is headquartered in Hong Kong. It is one of the world's leading manufacturers of cotton dress shirts, T-shirts and polo shirts. With a total of 54,000 employees and production facilities covering China, Vietnam, Malaysia, Sri Lanka and Mauritius, the vertically-integrated company produces over 100 million woven and knitwear clothing items per annum – mainly for prestigious international brands such as Hugo Boss, Nike, Lacoste, Marks & Spencer, Tommy Hilfiger and Gant.

Esquel has primarily been committed to quality. Based on this principle the company has consistently focused on the vertical integration of all production phases – from cotton cultivation through yarn spinning, weaving, knitting, dyeing, finishing to garment manufacturing, to ensure the highest quality in every step of the manufacturing process.

The company even produces its own accessories and packaging. Esquel has its own sales distribution network with worldwide merchandising offices which puts it in a position to respond flexibly to customer requirements and to ensure optimum provision to the trade. John Cheh, the Vice Chairman & CEO of Esquel Group is convinced that it is precisely this strategy that has been the cornerstone of Esquel's success, namely that "quality starts with the raw material.

This is why we grow extra-long staple cotton in the company's own fields in the Chinese province of Xinjiang. In addition to the traditionally cultivated plantations, we also cultivate fields with organic cotton. Each individual production phase at Esquel is underpinned by an endeavour to achieve top quality and sustainability."

Safer products - sustainable processes

Back in 2000 the company started to have its products certified according to the OEKO-TEX Standard 100. Now all the items produced in the Chinese production sites comply with the required human/ecology criteria. For John Cheh this is an important component of company quality assurance.

"In accordance with our corporate culture, the independent proof as certified by the neutral test institutes of the OEKO-TEX Association, demonstrates that our products are harmless to health and represent an additional quality guarantee both for us and our customers."