Local branded apparel, leather goods replacing foreign ones

Shah Alam Nur | Published: July 20, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2024 06:01:00

Local branded apparel and leather goods are gradually replacing the foreign ones. As a result, the volume of imported products has fallen sizeably in recent times, industry insiders said.
For world-class quality and reasonable prices, customers now prefer local branded cloths, both of males and females and footwear more than imported products.
A large number of local manufacturing units, which do not even have any brand value, are producing world-class quality products. As a result, demand for Chinese, Thai or Indian products has declined sharply.
"Due to having better quality, the local branded cloth now is the top choice of the fashion-lovers in the country," Faruque Hassan, Managing Director, Texmart Fashion Ltd. (a sister concern of the Giant Group), one of the leading local fashion brands, told the FE.
He said local fashion houses have been producing quality garments for modern stylish people.
The local products have become tremendously popular with young boys and girls of the present time, he added.
Aarong, Cat's Eye, Banglar Mela, Kay Craft, Nipun, Deshal, Jatra, Shada Kalo, Yellow, Dorji bari, Artisti and Westecs are some of the leading brands that are competing with regional leaders to grab their own market share.
Khalid Mahmood Khan, Managing Director of Kay Kraft said, local customers' mindset is changing. Some years ago, they were thinking that foreign brand cloth was better than local brand, but now they are switching back to the domestic ones.
He said the local companies are trying to make products more attractive to both the high and the middle-end customers by introducing new designs.
With growing demand, the local manufacturers have been enjoying double-digit growth for the last couple of years due to their continuous efforts to match the changing tastes of the customers.
The importers of apparel and leather goods at Polwell, New Market, Elephant Road and Mouchak Market, said local products are gradually becoming popular as import dependency is falling.
Some years ago, Bangladeshi fashion-lovers were almost dependent on imported garment and leather goods but now the volume of imported apparel and leather products has dropped significantly.
Shakwat Hossain, owner of Saddam Shoes, at Polwell market in the city said, "Last year, our company imported India and China-made garments worth Tk 250 million, but this year weÂ imported products to the tune of only Tk 150 million".
He said like his company, many other importers reduced their imports this year due to increasing demand for locally-manufactured products.
The leading manufacturers including Apex Adelchi Footwear Ltd, Leatherex Footwear Industries Ltd, Bay Footwear, Jennys Shoes Ltd and Fortuna Leather Crafts Ltd are now the market leaders in the country for footwear.