Be competitive without exporting guilty garments – Chairman, Tristar Group

11 Jul '09

6 min read

News about Sri Lanka encouraging garment manufacturers to set up operations in the country's eastern district is in the air. We requested him to help us understand the determinants behind this drift and if Tristar had any plans on cards in this context, to which he said, “As the Sri Lankan government has made it safe in the eastern district after 30 years of conflict with a terrorist organization, 25% of our country has just opened up which was closed out for 30 years and we have already started a manufacturing unit in the area of Trincomalee, which provides 3,000 jobs to people in that area”.

“I can understand why the government of Sri Lanka is encouraging the apparel sector to start business in the east, as the apparel industry is one of the sectors which can create quick employment to people, as it does not matter how much you develop into machinery etc and it can grow into one of the most labour intensive businesses and thus will create employment to a lot of people quickly. I think this is why the government in Sri Lanka is encouraging garment manufactures to set up operations in that area”, he added by saying.

Tristar Group has been a leading player in Sri Lankan apparel industry since two decades and sparing consequences of recession, we asked him as to what according to him were the strengths and weaknesses of this industry in Sri Lanka, to which he observed by saying, “I think one of the success of our company to take us through times of recession is that, fashion products are only in demand as long as customers have disposable income and all this all becomes secondary when there is recession, customers would think twice about spending on fashion clothing and instead spend it on basic clothes, which is why we developed our baby wear business, as it does not matter which culture parents hail from, they will always spend money on their babies and kids”.

“During recession, parents will sacrifice their luxury products and save that money for their babies or kids. We are currently manufacturing over 1 million pieces per month of baby wear products which we export to UK to retailers like Asada, John Lewis etc and it has been our observation that, in babywear products, the volumes do not drop at any period and we have developed this to become our core business and although demand for fashion products will drop during periods of recession, the babywear volumes will remain the same or increase, and it is this core business which sails the company through periods of recession”, he concluded by saying.

Recession is believed to be slowly retracing its steps and we asked him as to when in his opinion could it fully leave the global economy, to which replied by saying, “Yes recession is winding down, but I feel that it will take one more year, to overcome the effects of recession completely and I do not think that once recession ends there will be a over night boom in business, but it will be a gradual phase, but at the same time, I think it is during this time that we have to sharpen our skills and companies should evaluate strengths and weaknesses, and develop on these. As, when recession ends, we should be on a good foundation to be ready to move aggressively as there will be fierce competition after recession to grab business, and companies who are not ready for this will have to suffer more after recession”.

Fibre2fashion News Desk - India