Vietnam is the Latest Global Expansion for Unifi’s REPREVE®
GREENSBORO, N.C., Jan. 9, 2017 /PRNewswire/ — Unifi, Inc. (NYSE:UFI)
continues to expand its global footprint of REPREVE® recycled fiber by
entering into Vietnam with support from Century Synthetic Fiber
Corporation, now a licensed manufacturer of REPREVE. Century
Corporation will manufacture, sell and distribute REPREVE filament yarn
within Vietnam, and Unifi Textiles (Suzhou) Co., Ltd. (UTSC) – Unifi’s
subsidiary in China – will manage sales and distribution of REPREVE
filament yarn exported from Vietnam. This collaboration will open
distribution channels for REPREVE in a key apparel-producing region,
helping to fulfill increasing demand and shorten lead times to the
Company’s customer base.
Headquartered in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, Century Synthetic Fiber
Corporation is one of the largest polyester yarn manufacturers in
Vietnam. Century Corporation was established more than 15 years ago and
continues to invest in its operations and expand capacity today.
“Vietnam has been a region of focus for brands and retailers over the
past few years,” said Tom Caudle, president of Unifi, Inc. “The growth
in the region cannot be ignored, with exports of approximately $27
billion of apparel and textiles in 2015, and expectations to grow to $30
billion in 2016. Within the past 18 months, we’ve grown distribution of
REPREVE to include Turkey, Taiwan, Sri Lanka and now, Vietnam.”
Jay Hertwig, vice president of global brand sales, marketing and
product development for Unifi, added, “This is a strategic position in
growing the global supply chain for REPREVE and will allow us to expand
into other Premium Value Added (PVA) products in the near future. A
presence in Vietnam will enable Unifi to meet sourcing requests and
increasing demand from our customers wherever they choose to do
business.”
About Unifi:
Unifi, Inc. is a multi-national manufacturing company that produces
and sells textured and other processed yarns designed to meet customer
specifications, and premier value-added (“PVA”) yarns with enhanced
performance characteristics. Unifi maintains one of the textile
industry’s most comprehensive polyester and nylon product offerings.
Unifi enhances demand for its products, and helps others in creating a
more effective textile industry supply chain, through the development
and introduction of branded yarns that provide unique performance,
comfort and aesthetic advantages. In addition to its flagship REPREVE® products – a family of eco-friendly yarns made from recycled materials – key Unifi brands include: SORBTEK®, REFLEXX®, AIO® – all-in-one performance yarns, SATURA®, AUGUSTA®, A.M.Y.®, MYNX® UV and MICROVISTA®.
Unifi’s yarns are readily found in the products of major brands in the
apparel, hosiery, automotive, home furnishings, industrial and other
end-use markets. For more information about Unifi, visit www.unifi.com; to learn more about REPREVE®, visit www.REPREVE.com.
About REPREVE:
REPREVE® is Unifi, Inc.’s (NYSE:UFI)
flagship brand of recycled fibers, made from recycled materials,
including plastic bottles. REPREVE can be found in products ranging from
apparel and hosiery to automotive and industrial applications, and is
used by some of the world’s leading brands, including Patagonia, Haggar,
Quiksilver and Ford. REPREVE’s #TurnItGreen initiative is designed to
encourage recycling and raise awareness among consumers that recycled
bottles can be turned into cool products they use every day. For more
information about REPREVE, visit www.REPREVE.com; like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter and Instagram.
Ever since spinning and weaving were first mechanized in the 18th
century, the yarn and textile industries have been in technological and
geographical flux, spreading from one corner of the world to the other.
Flourishing businesses in textiles ushered in the industrial revolution
in countries as far apart as the United Kingdom, the United States and
China.
Today, these twin industries are expanding rapidly in Southeast Asia,
providing entrepreneurial and job opportunities alike, and spreading
prosperity to companies and countries who demonstrate that they can
compete successfully on the world market.
Envisioned a future and built a company
As a yarn trader in Vietnam in the 1990s, Dang Trieu Hoa ─ known to
many internationally as Jack Dang — saw Taiwanese and Chinese polyester
manufacturers triumph on international markets. “By the turn of the
century,” Dang says, “I realized that my native Vietnam could serve as a
natural new setting to support similar success stories.”
Determined that his story should be one of them, Dang established the
Century Synthetic Fiber Corporation (now a publically held company of
which he is CEO) to produce polyester filament for the budding
Vietnamese textile and garment industry. It was a good choice. This
specific product subsequently enjoyed the highest growth rate in the
business.
From his experience as a trader, Dang knew the business well—but not
the production technology. “We initially bought second-hand equipment
from a Taiwanese company,” he explains, “under the condition that the
seller would teach us everything we needed to know about operating their
machines.”
He and his staff proved to be quick learners. Within two years, the
Century team had mastered the fundamentals and began looking for
next-generation technological solutions. In order to meet skyrocketing
demand and win market share at the same time, Dang boldly decided to
double the company’s production of Draw Texture Yarn (DTY) to 9 600 tons
per year. He wasn’t going to be able to do that cost-efficiently with
yesterday’s technology—and so he made one of the most consequential
decisions of his career.
“We decided to buy brand-new equipment from Oerlikon Barmag,” he says
simply. “This was a make-or-break investment for us, but given Oerlikon
Barmag’s proven track-record for providing energy-saving, operationally
efficient machines — plus the company’s reputation for excellent
customer service — the decision wasn’t difficult.”
Oerlikon Barmag equipment brought Century to the next level.
Century wanted to produce more sophisticated products, each
characterized by reliably high quality. With cutting-edge equipment from
Oerlikon Barmag, backed by the supplier’s technical support and
production management expertise, Century was able to enhance both its
capacity and quality control at the same time.
The expansion proved successful, generating financial resources for
Century to invest in a Partially Oriented Yarn (POY) facility with an
annual capacity of 14 500 tons while increasing its DTY production
capacity to 15 000 tons by 2008.
Dang realized that by applying a backward integration strategy to POY
production, the company could further increase overall product quality
and cut production costs. After recurrent phases of expansion, Century
factories can now produce 37 000 tons of DTY and Fully Drawn Yarn (FDY)
every year.
Both as a supplier and a production management consultant, Oerlikon
Barmag has been partnering with Century for ten years. That relationship
continues to evolve today. Dang tells us that his company is now making
investments in production that will increase annual capacity to 60 000
tons by the first quarter of 2017.
According to Dang, Vietnam’s garment and textile sector is entering a
golden era with excellent, sustainable long-term growth potential. He
is quick to point out, however, “[that] with great opportunities come
great challenges. In order to remain competitive internationally, a
company must offer reliably high quality products at competitive prices,
and deliver excellent customer service year after year.”
Objectives like these can only be achieved, of course, if the company
has modern production facilities, a highly skilled and professional
workforce and modern management practices.
Oerlikon Barmag helps Century check off all the boxes here,
delivering state-of-the art equipment, contributing (albeit modestly) to
workforce training, and consulting on best practices as Century brings a
widely imitated and very capable enterprise resource planning (ERP)
system on-line.
This business management tool is a suite of integrated applications
that Century will be able to use to collect, store, manage and interpret
data from many of their business activities, including product
planning, cost management, manufacturing, marketing and sales, inventory
management, shipping and payment.
In addition, Century has recently implemented in its brand-new
factory a new version of the Oerlikon Barmag’s plant operation center
(POC), fully in line with Industry 4.0. Believing that this state-of-art
production management technology will help the Company to improve
production efficiency and quality, hence improving its client
satisfaction as well as the Company’s productivity, Jack decided that
the POC will be deployed company-wise (in all factories) next year.
Sticking to the essentials
“At Century,” says Dang, “our strategy focuses on the four
‘M’s—namely, manpower, machines, materials and methods. Selecting the
right equipment supplier is a crucial factor for success. With
state-of-the art equipment from Oerlikon Barmag, we make high quality
products, which meet even the most rigorous demands of our customers.
This equipment saves energy — a significant production cost — thus
helping Century to build up a reputable brand name as an environmentally
conscientious, high-quality yarn maker.”
Century has simple yet effective business and development strategies.
The company focuses on delivering uniform, high quality products, and
also on continuously creating new ones.
Oerlikon Barmag plays an important role in this process as the
company delivers the advanced machinery to Century that ensures optimal
quality, versatility and efficiency. Oerlikon also regularly sends its
experts to Century to provide after-sales service and deliver practical
technological solutions to assist Dang’s company in the development of
new products.
Gazing toward the horizon
“I believe that the demand for polyester filament will continue to
grow,” says Dang, “We will be able to meet that demand with a stable
supply and stay competitive if we continue to innovate in terms of
improving product functionality.”
Recent innovations in functionality have included such breakthroughs
as hollow, anti-UV, quick-dry, recycled and even flame-retardant yarns.
Most of Century’s customers are knitting and weaving companies that
specialize in sophisticated materials for products procured by
world-leading clothing, footwear and home textile brands. These brands
include Nike, Adidas, Puma, IKEA, Uniqlo and Reebok.
“Working with Oerlikon Barmag, we’re able to provide exactly what our
customers need to meet their customers’ demands,” explains CEO Dang
Trieu Hoa. “Oerlikon helps us by updating their machines on an on-going
basis in order to provide new solutions that make it possible for us to
produce high technical specification products, while saving energy at
the same time!” by Frederic Love
Oerlikon Barmag is one of two competence brands from Oerlikon’s
Manmade Fibers Segment, and a prominent supplier of textile technologies
globally. Oerlikon Barmag is the world market leader in the development
and production of spinning systems and ancillary equipment, including
texturing machines, for manmade fibers such as polyester, nylon and
polypropylene.
