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| Issue date:01/10/2008 |
| ATA Journal for Asia on Textile & Apparel - Oct 2008 Issue |
| Source:Journal for Asia on Textile & Apparel |
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Featured company: Wuxi Nature Textile
Wuxi Nature Textile Industrial Co Ltd (無錫市天然紡織實業有限公司), one of the largest production bases of mercerizing cotton in Asia, aims at providing high-quality green textiles for customers in China and beyond, Pony Liu reports
"I don't do things others can. I focus on things that others do not well, and I will do it better," said Zhu Guomin (朱國民), General Manager of Wuxi Nature Textile. His philosophy influences the market positioning of his company.
Established in 1995, Wuxi Nature Textile built up a vertical production chain, involving weaving, yarn processing, mercerization and dyeing services, as well as the manufacturing of fabrics and garments.
Using Egyptian extra long staple cotton, the company produces bright and soft mercerized yarn of good quality. This is also a major product of the company, listed in the National Torch Program of China for the high-tech manufacturing process. Products selected by the National Torch Program of China will benefit from capital support, bank loan preference and/or tax incentives.
Zhu Guomin |
Last year, Wuxi Nature Textile assisted the Chinese authorities in drafting an industrial standard of mercerizing cotton, according to Mr Zhu.
Advancing to original design manufacturing
Prior to the interview with ATA Journal, Mr Zhu visited Europe to gain a deeper understanding of overseas markets.
He observed a large price discrepancy between Chinese and European textile products. A European original design manufacturer (ODM) earned about 25 euros for each piece of a polo shirt produced. In contrast, Chinese manufacturers earned about 3-4 euros (mainly processing fees) for the same shirt. Wuxi Nature Textile earned no more than 10-11 euros with its high-tech fabrics.
Wuxi Nature Textile should not stop at OEM processing, and it could enter the European market only if it further strengthened the design ability, Mr Zhu said.
"Our company is strong in material research, development and design. The complete production facility, meanwhile, brings us competitive advantages in cost, speed and quality, compared to many competitors," he said.
During his stay in Europe, Mr Zhu made a few agreements for acquiring and/or providing financing to some European enterprises, which possess a good sense of the European market needs and trends. With these overseas partners, Wuxi Nature Textile aimed at directly marketing its products on the European continent.
The company is also actively expanding its distribution network in North America by establishing a sales office in the US recently.
Talent for R&D stressed
The company started to design and develop its own products five or six years ago. Today, Mr Zhu believes his company possesses substantial experience in product research and design, which is comparable to the counterparts in Europe.
In order to build up a strong R&D team, the company regularly arranges scholarships in nine Chinese tertiary education institutes, including Tsinghua University, Peking University, Nankai University, as well as six textile colleges, such as Donghua University, Beijing Garment College, Wuhan Science and Technology College and Wuxi Jiangnan University.
Talent is crucial to Wuxi Nature Textile, which has built up a large team with professional and international design and R&D capabilities in this company.
Production floor of Wuxi Nature Textile |
The company also established a knitting technology R&D center, jointly with the China Textile University, the China Textile College and the China Textile Industry Association, which is the only one of its kind in the country.
Additionally, it develops training for fresh graduates to get familiar with different textile processes of fabric making, weaving, knitting and dyeing, before working for the design and R&D team. In this way, they can make a more effective use of various processes and equipment in the textile manufacturing process when they finally work in the design team. They are also sent overseas for further study.
"Through trainings we organized, we found that our designers could perform better than Korean designers in structural design of fabric," said Mr Zhu. He further commented that both Wuxi Nature Textile and Italian enterprises had their respective advantages when competing, and Wuxi Nature Textile could exceed Italian competitors in certain areas.
Greener dyeing and finishing pursued
In addition to the design ability, Wuxi Nature Textile positions itself as a supplier of high-grade green textiles in the market by adopting greener approaches in the dyeing and finishing process.
"This means less water, salt, materials, labour and energy are used in the dyeing and finishing process, without sacrificing yarn quality. Moreover, substances discharged by us cause minimum harm to the environment, and the wastewater discharged is treated or recovered. Eventually, the products we wear are safe to us and environmentally friendly," he said.
The company is equipped with advanced dyeing and finishing systems imported from such countries as Switzerland, Italy and Germany for eco-friendlier production.
"These internationally advanced equipments allow us to further develop in the area of green textiles in the future," he said, adding that the company was planning to build a green textile engineering technical center at the national standard for further product research.
With a higher initial investment, these equipments had a payback period of about three to four years, Mr Zhu said, considering that the manufacturing of products was of good and consistent quality to minimize re-dyes and material wastes.
Profitability is key
This year, the Chinese textile industry was under severe pressure, due to the influences of strong renminbi, new labor regulations, rising labor costs and more stringent environmental standards in the country, Mr Zhu commented.
Change was perceived as crucial for the Chinese textile industry; however, it required a number of favorable internal and external factors for an individual enterprise, e.g. capital, talent and know-how, to execute a feasible plan of change, he explained.
"While capital is important, the ability of a manufacturer to make profits can be more critical. In order to maintain a balanced financial status, we sold our old factory. Instead, we are building up a new industrial park for the long-term development of Wuxi Nature Textile. We aim at building up ourselves as a sustainable enterprise with competitive prowess in the global market," concluded Mr Zhu.
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Copyright © Adsale Publishing Limited. Credit goes to Adsale Industry Portal when used.
We reserve the right to take legal action against any party who reprint any part of this article without acknowledgement. For enquiries, please contact the Editorial Department. |
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