Post-Covid textile and garment: Need to focus on design – branding

In addition to increasing the localization rate and “green production”, the requirement for textile and garment enterprises is to overcome the operating process combined with technology investment and brand building instead of mainly outsourcing for foreign brands.

This information was raised by experts, researchers and businesses at the Textile and Garment Seminar held online by the Saigon Economic Review last December.

Share orders and digital transformation to overcome the pandemic

From being “almost desperate” due to the prolonged lockdown in Ho Chi Minh City and the southern provinces, the textile and garment industry quickly recovered and regained its growth momentum at the end of the year. As a result, by the end of 2021, textile and garment exports will reach US$39 billion, up 11.2% compared to 2020. This is a great effort of the textile and garment industry in the context of the economy being heavily impacted. Covid-19 pandemic.

Sharing about the solutions implemented to overcome difficulties in the past period, Mr. Pham Van Viet, Vice Chairman of Ho Chi Minh City Textile and Embroidery Association (Agtex), Chairman of the Board of Directors of Viet Thang Jeans Co., Ltd., said: Facing a series of difficulties during the period of social distancing, Viet Thang Jeans had to flexibly share orders with businesses in other localities to minimize risks. The company also discussed with customers to distance orders, thanks to support in sourcing materials from other countries. Enterprises also strengthen links with employees through salary, bonus and welfare policies.

Mr. Nguyen Quyet Thang, Deputy General Director of Corporation 28 (Agtex 28), shared that the implementation of “3 on the spot” along with good salary and bonus policies for employees to feel secure in production has helped businesses meet Timely orders for urgent delivery. “In addition to export orders, at Agtex 28, there are also defense orders for the military, which is an important political task, so it is impossible to delay the progress,” Thang said, and said that sharing the order goods for businesses in the association and in the group helped Agtex 28 to request delivery in a timely manner. Thanks to taking good care of workers during the epidemic, when the economy is open, the labor force will return to work 85-90%.

Assoc.Prof.Dr. Tran Ha Minh Quan, Director of the ISB Institute, was delighted with the news that Viet Thang Jeans and Agtex 28 had actively shared orders with other businesses. To share orders, businesses need to “standardize” suppliers and manufacturers must meet customer requirements. “This point shows that suppliers need to strengthen their capacity and standardize the management process to confirm production capacity,” Mr. Quan said.

From the perspective of experts accompanying enterprises to improve production, Dr. Pham Thi Hong Phuong, Head of the Department of Chemical and Materials Technology (Ho Chi Minh City University of Industry), said that during the outbreak of the disease, businesses were very flexible and ready to improve, ready to transform. number to be able to survive. “They see the effect from large corporations when they are still operating smoothly during the pandemic, so they are very active in digital transformation even when the epidemic is complicated. We gave them improvements and they all implemented them right away,” Phuong said.

Invest in technology, gradually shift to green production

At the seminar, the opinions said that export opportunities for textile and garment products are huge, especially in the context that a series of free trade agreements (FTAs) signed by Vietnam are opening up many competitive advantages. . However, the requirements for product quality and suppliers are becoming more and more stringent.

In addition to improving the localization rate to receive tax incentives from FTAs, brands also require green production, reducing fossil energy use, increasing waste recycling, being socially responsible, and environmentally friendly…

“Many Agtex 28 customers have asked us to implement these green production processes,” shared Mr. Thang, and said that in 2021 as well as the next five-year development strategy, Agtex 28 focuses on a huge budget for this activity, namely investment in equipment to replace workers, energy-saving equipment, water recirculation to ensure green, clean and environmentally friendly production…

According to Mr. Minh Quan, consumers have the responsibility to care about the origin of products, safety in production, welfare of workers’ lives, etc. In general, these issues in Vietnam are being evaluated very well. good. “This good image has created the Made in Vietnam brand and needs to be continued in the future,” said Mr. Quan.

Meanwhile, according to Mr. Viet, in the face of difficulties caused by the epidemic and fierce competition in the market, businesses need to adapt very quickly; At the same time, it is necessary to innovate, especially to invest in modern technology, to be able to compete. Small and medium enterprises also realize this trend and want to improve, but do not have the potential.

On the other hand, despite being ranked in the top 2 textile exporting countries in the world, on the global textile and garment map, there is a lack of garment brands of Vietnamese enterprises. Therefore, at the seminar, it was suggested that besides outsourcing production for foreign brands, enterprises also need to build their own brands to enhance product value and affirm their corporate position.

Both Viet Thang Jeans and Agtex 28 also have their own brands, V-SixtyFour and Belluni respectively, which are being promoted in the domestic market. However, in the international market is unknown. Regarding production capacity, it is said that Vietnamese enterprises can make good quality products and meet the strict conditions of other countries. However, in order for consumers to accept the product, the stage of branding and market research is elaborate and expensive, which needs the support of trade promotion channels from the management agency.

As Vice President of Agtex, Mr. Viet suggested that Ho Chi Minh City need to form a textile center with four functions, in which, he noted the function of training human resources to be able to “produce” good designers. . Because in order to develop the supply chain, there must be a design – branding stage, because this is the stage with the largest added value of the industry. While the four stages from cotton, yarn, wash to sewing, the value is not high. “All four stages are only about 40% of the total value of the product,” said Mr. Viet.

Regarding the mechanism and policies to support the industry, according to Ms. Phuong, the Government has created many open mechanisms to support and accompany businesses to develop and integrate. “The leading textile and garment enterprises are supported by tax support policies, preferential capital, training and improvement…”, Ms. Phuong said. However, the role of associations and professional associations; Local business support centers, departments under ministries have been slow to implement, not doing a good job of “bridging” these good policies to businesses.

Source: KTSG