Epyllion plans to set up Tk 60cr plant

Workers are seen at a factory of Epyllion Group, one of the fastest growing local knitwear makers. It plans to set up a Tk 60 crore woven-making unit. Epyllion Refayet Ullah Mirdha

Shaking off the recession jitters, Epyllion Group, one of the fastest growing local knitwear manufacturing groups, is planning to set up a woven making unit at Tk 60 crore as the market for the item is widening. The factory is expected to go into production within the next one and a half years.

The group currently having 10 knitwear plants with more than 9,000 workers will set up its woven garment manufacturing unit in Gazipur, said Reazuddin Al-Mamoon, managing director of the group.

C&A, Zara and CAPPA are the major buyers of Epyllion Group, which started its journey in 1994 with a limited production capacity and 200 workers in the city's Mirpur area, he said.

"The investment will be more than Tk 60 crore in the woven factory and I hope it will start production within the next one and a half years," said Mamoon, who is now travelling European countries to complete negotiations with his major buyers.

He said the production capacity would be 10,000 pieces of woven items per day in the proposed factory.

The owner of the group said he has an even bigger plan for further investment as Bangladeshi companies are increasing their share in the global apparel market, but the problem is that the government cannot supply gas and electricity, and infrastructures are weak.

He said if everything goes all right, he will go for investment in denim manufacturing as the market of this product is widening rapidly due to recent changes in fashion and clothing designs.

Mamoon said Bangladesh's share in the global apparel market is only 2 percent and the country can hardly maintain the orders of EU and USA.

"We have also potential buyers in Japan, China, Canada, New Zealand, Middle East, Australia and South Africa."

Talking to The Daily Star from UK, Mamoon said the economic situation in Europe is stabilising by degrees and the scope for Bangladeshi readymade garments is also widening as the country produces basic items.

"Every year I send $60 million worth knitwear products to EU. In the immediate past fiscal year I sent the same amount. I hope in FY 2009-10 I would be able to send more than $60 million worth of products to EU," he said.

The group's another main export destination is USA, he said. The group's total export was $87 million in FY 2008-09 and in the current FY he is expecting $90 million exports.

"For a long time the group maintained a 25 percent growth year-on-year, but in 2009-10 the growth would be slowed to 10 percent mainly because of a decline in orders," he said.

Asked about the impact of the latest labour unrest on the buyers, Mamoon said they have to explain a lot of things to the international buyers about such untoward incidents in Bangladesh.

He said the buyers want to know whether the local manufacturers would be able to ship the orders in time amid such labour unrest.

Repeated labour unrest may shake the buyers' sentiment, Mamoon added.

He said the group has also recently entered real estate business and invested Tk 140 crore to construct Nina Holding on the city's Tejgaon-Gulshan link road for commercial space rent.

The RMG exporters are now facing price-cut pressure from the international buyers amid recession, he said. "But we fear labour unrest the most than the recession."

reefat@thedailystar.net