Machinery installed at SQ Stevensons Chroma Ltd. The joint venture will go into commercial production on Wednesday with a capacity to dye 6 million pieces of knitwear per year.

An UK-based garment dyeing company abandoned its plans to relocate a plant to China, instead building it in Bangladesh, attracted by the lower costs and well developed garment industry.

Stevensons shifted the plant from the UK to Bhaluka in Mymensingh, following an invitation from the SQ Group, a leading sweater manufacturer in Bangladesh.

The new joint venture, SQ Stevensons Chroma Limited, established on a 34,000 square feet area in SQ Group's Supply Chain City in Mymensingh, will go into commercial production on Wednesday with a capacity to dye 6 million pieces of knitwear per year.

Syed Ahsan Habib, now operations director of SQ Stevensons, said SQ learnt in September 2006 that Stevensons was planning to relocate its UK factory to China.

“Knowing this we asked Stevensons to visit SQ Group here saying that there is a huge potential in Bangladesh and they can relocate their plant here instead of China,” he said.

Stevensons accepted the invitation and visited Bangladesh. In February 2007 the two companies signed a deal on the move.

“Stevensons were convinced that Bangladesh is going to continue to be a garment producing country with low costs. They also found the investment environment friendly with many mature garment units,” Habib said.

“In contrast they found China had higher costs,” he added.

Garment dyeing is a process through which a knitwear product is coloured after being manufactured using raw yarn.

“Garment dyeing instead of yarn dyeing gives a better finish, while the garment is also comfortable to wear,” said Habib.

The process also allows manufactures to supply products within a very short time, a key factor in gaining orders from fashion conscious European buyers.

The European buyers place orders during March-April for knit products to be showcased during August-September. But choosing colours mainly depends on the customers' choice and the colour trend may change any time. This means buyers want to change the colour of the product during the selling season, Habib said.

“Some renowned garment buyers such as Marks & Spencer, Hennes & Mauritz (H&M), Tesco, GAP, S Oliver and Espree have already shown their interest in visiting our plant,” he said.

Stevensons set up its dyeing machinery worth around US$10 million in the new venture, while the SQ provided land, buildings, utility and logistical support worth around $2 million.

“In the first two years an experienced team of Stevensons will provide services for ensuring the technology transfer on garment dyeing,” he said, adding, “SQ is the first local company that set up a garment dyeing unit in collaboration with a foreign one.”

sarwar@thedailystar.net