Mayer & Cie. is quite optimistic of its growth prospects in the Bangladesh market. With $30 billion in exports last year, which is expected to double by 2023, Bangladesh is steadily becoming the largest manufacturer of apparels and garments, next to China.
Hardy Bühler, Country Manager of Mayer & Cie., shared his views on why he is optimistic about the Bangladesh market.
Bangladesh is the second biggest garment market after China, and as production costs in China are rising, textile manufacturing is increasingly moving to neighbouring countries where wage bills are lower. That is why many standard orders, especially for sports outerwear and leisurewear, are passed on from China to, say, Bangladesh, India and other South-East Asian countries.
Talking about Mayer & Cie.’s business globally, Bühler said: “2018 was a challenging year for the entire textile industry, due mainly to international trade policy turbulence. So we too naturally felt the effects, but we were able to hold our own and to end the year on a positive note.”
The year 2018 was one of milestones for Mayer & Cie. The company won the Innovation Prize for the Climate and the Environment (IKU), awarded by the Federal Ministry of Environment (BMUB), and the Federation of German Industries (BDI), for its spinning and knitting technology. Combining spinning and knitting in one machine has many advantages, saving space, time, energy and resources. The machine, Spinit 3.0 E, went into series production at the end of 2018, which was definitely another milestone. In June, Mayer & Cie. was named one of top 100 most innovative small and mid-range German enterprises. The company received this recognition for the second time, first in 2016.
Then there was the assembly of the 1,000th machine at the company’s Shanghai works, where machines specially developed for the Chinese market have been assembled since 2012. That milestone testified to the company performance in China in recent years. Last but not the least is an entirely different sector. Braiding machines, which we have started to manufacture since the beginning of 2019 at our German headquarters in Albstadt-Tailfingen. These special machines, previously manufactured by our American affiliate Mayer Industries, help to sheathe hydraulic hoses, for example, and the product extension naturally required a great deal of preparation in 2018.
Mayer & Cie. is represented by Brady Service Company in Bangladesh since 2014. Yet, the ties between Mayer & Cie. and the Managing Director of Brady Services, Ehsan Brady, are much older than that. Ehsan met Rainer Mayer, the then Managing Director of Mayer & Cie., at ITMA in 1995 for the first time. Ehsan was then working for Mayer & Cie’s then agent in Bangladesh. According to Mr. Ehsan, he was always impressed by Rainer Mayer whom he met on a regular basis at trade fairs and other events.
In 2014, Rainer Mayer appointed Ehsan as the new Mayer & Cie. Bangladesh agent. In the meantime, he had set up his own business, Brady Services. Ehsan Brady says that Rainer Mayer’s work ethics inspires him to this day. “Be honest and exert your fullest efforts to achieve your goals” has become the guiding principle in my work, too, says Ehsan Brady. Currently Mayer & Cie. is selling around 150 machines per year in Bangladesh and has approximately 2,000 Mayer & Cie. circular knitting machines running now.
Commenting on Mayer & Cie.’s growth in the Bangladesh market, Bühler said: “We are definitely satisfied with the stable growth in Bangladesh over the years. While mechanical single jersey machines have been the market’s favourites for quite some time, we now receive more enquiries for high productivity machines. Take the Relanit 3.2 HS, for instance. In connection with the recently held DTG Dhaka, a new Bangladeshi customer placed an order for a significant number of Relanit 3.2 HS”.
He added: “The Relanit 3.2 HS impresses with exceptional productivity both when working with pure cotton and with elastomeric yarns. When working with cotton, it reaches up to 50 rpm. This is talking about a machine with a 30-inch diameter. All Relanit machines feature unusually gentle processing leading to the machine’s outstanding productivity and reliability, particularly with elastomeric yarns. That’s why the existing and potential customers have come to understand that investing in a Relanit machine is sure to pay swift and lasting dividends”.
Talking about technology adoption in textile manufacturing, Bangladesh has traditionally boasted of a high level of textile expertise in both spinning and knitting. It is also interested in new developments, as was shown yet again at this year’s DTG trade fair in Dhaka. The textiles market in Bangladesh is on the move and is open for new ideas. Above all, with the potential shown by individual customers, the future looks extremely positive.
Speaking about other applications in the knitted segment like mattress ticking and shoe uppers, Bühler said that in Bangladesh these areas of textile production are still in their very early days, but could certainly develop positively in the future.
Experience has shown that development of a textile market leads to that of profitable niche applications. What is more, a very heterogeneous customer base is already in place. There are customers in Bangladesh with very clear visions and a keen interest in new markets.
Service and spares
Speaking about service, Bühler disclosed: “We at Mayer & Cie. are currently setting up new processes in customer service. This is to facilitate and speed up availability of service activities on a global level.
He explained this approach thus: “Our agent in Bangladesh, Brady Services, is a sales and service representation. That means customers in Bangladesh not only enjoy first-rate support in terms of sales of our high quality knitting machines but can also always get in touch with Brady for everyday advice or troubleshooting over the phone. If necessary, they can send for a service technician, too. These technicians are most familiar with all our machines. They regularly travel to our headquarters in Albstadt, Germany, to receive training on any new features or machines.”
Future outlook
For one thing, Bangladesh’s exports of piece goods or readymade clothing have been on the increase for years. According to the Pakistani newspaper, The Dawn, Bangladeshi companies exported clothing worth $30 billion in 2018. Bangladesh came second only to China, the world’s largest exporter, and by 2023 this figure is set to nearly double to $50 billion.
Demand for circular knitting machines is correspondingly strong and constant. For years, Bangladesh has been one of the foremost markets. Two-thirds of this demand is for single jersey and one-third for double jersey machines. Due to lower wages, many ‘standard orders’ are expected to be passed on from countries with more expensive labour costs to Bangladesh, Pakistan and the Indian sub-continent in general. They include, for example, casual outer and leisurewear consisting mainly of single jersey fabrics and double jersey with micro-structure effects.
By Md. Ariful Haque & K. Gopalakrishnan