Pacific Jeans Group, one of the fastest growing apparel exporters in Bangladesh, could reap $500 million in export earnings in the current fiscal year as its apparel shipments steadily increase.

Exports earned the Chattogram-based manufacturer $450 million in the last fiscal year 2020-21. It was $325 million in 2017-2018.

“Our goal is to grow export revenue to around $1 billion over the next five years,” Syed Mohammad Tanvir, the company’s managing director, said in an interview recently.

The country’s leading exporter of high-end jeans has shown steady growth for the past few years and now plans to focus more on product diversification as it aims to realize its long-term vision of becoming a global apparel solutions company. life.

“We want to make all the quality clothes one needs for a better life,” Tanvir said.

“Basically, we want to diversify so that we can make different categories of products based on different categories of markets and customers.

Tanvir’s visionary father, Mr Nasir Uddin, started the group’s journey by establishing a small factory, NZN Fashions Ltd, with 500 workers in 1984 in the Patharghata area of ​​the port city.

In 1994 Nasir established Pacific Jeans Ltd in the Chattogram Export Processing Zone (CEPZ) with 1,500 people.

Over the years, the group has evolved into one of the leading manufacturers of high-end jeans.

She launched her knitwear unit, Pacific Casuals, in 2019 and launched Pacific Knitex last year to make fabrics for the factory.

Currently, it operates six units – Pacific Jeans, Jeans 2000, Universal Jeans, NHT Fashion, Pacific Accessories and Pacific Casuals – at CEPZ and Pacific Knitex in Sitakunda, employing approximately 35,000 people.

Last month, it opened Pacific Workwear at CEPZ to produce workwear. Production in the new factory has not yet started.

Among the companies, Universal Jeans and Pacific Jeans received the National Export Trophy and won gold and silver medals respectively for their outstanding performance in the 2017-2018 fiscal year.

Universal Jeans started its journey in 2008 with 500 workers and exported goods worth around $15 million in the fiscal year 2008-09. Export earnings increased more than 11 times to reach $172 million in 2017-2018.

The unit alone employs around 10,000 people.

Tanvir attributed the steady growth to gradual improvement in overall management.

In recent years, the group has focused on product development, improvement of production efficiency, human resource development, skill development of middle managers and optimal utilization of resources.

“We have also given importance to issues such as process improvement, process innovation and overall process digitization over the past few years, and this has helped us reduce human error.”

“Thanks to these, we have been able to increase our overall production and improve our efficiency. This has ensured constant growth.”

Currently, the company’s main markets are Japan, Europe and the United States.

“We also want to explore various other markets. We want to enter large markets such as China and India and other emerging Asian markets.”

Pacific Jeans Group has intensified its efforts in environmental sustainability and improving the working environment over the past four to five years and has strengthened its financial and corporate governance.

“Our business is now more process-oriented than people-oriented,” Tanvir said.

The group plans to continue working on product diversification, produce more high value-added products and explore new markets.

It has invested to build its capabilities in the knitwear segment as it plans to work with various knitwear items.

Tanvir is however aware that investment in the knitwear sector cannot be done without composite factories. It currently has a fabric production unit for the knitwear factory.

“When our fabric production capacity increases, we will try to invest in spinning,” he said.

“The investment in Pacific Workwear is part of the process of transitioning to higher value products. There are prospects for growth in this segment.”

There are also challenges.

Customers always want a short delivery time. Thus, the development of infrastructure is essential for the growth of the country’s exports.

Bangladesh needs the Bay Terminal and deep water ports as soon as possible because mother ships cannot enter Chattogram Port. As a result, it takes another 15-20 days to deliver the goods to export destinations.

“It’s a major impediment to exports,” Tanvir said.

The entrepreneur called for increasing the country’s capacity to produce raw materials to reduce reliance on external sources to fuel the larger foreign exchange earning sector.

“The more self-sufficient we can be in terms of backward linkages and raw materials, the more growth we will achieve.”