The forecast for the T&C Sector of Bangladesh is bright with more buyers pouring into the country.
- Mr. M.A. Jabbar , MD , DBL Group
DBL Group, based in Bangladesh, commenced its operations in year 1991. The group with its 14 subsidiaries is engaged in diverse business activities, including prominence in composite knit wear production through state-of-art facilities for cotton spinning, fabric knitting- dying-finishing and garments cutting-sewing-washing-finishing-packing & exporting.Mr. M.A.Jabbar - Managing Director, a distinguished personality in the RMG sector of Bangladesh, is the main architect of DBL Group. He is Computer Science graduate from USA, who with a vision to give his bit to economy of the country returned to Bangladesh, and joined Dulal Brothers Limited as Marketing Director. His dynamic leadership brought in growth opportunities for the company resulting in setting up of more industries for Dulal Brothers Limited and the birth of the acronym DBL Group. He is the chief architect of Vision 2020 through which DBL Group seeks to achieve a visible contribution to the GDP of Bangladesh before it steps into 2021, the Golden Jubilee celebration year of the country’s independence.
Mr. M.A. Jabbar, in his candid one to one with Ms. Madhu Soni, Sr. Editor & Correspondent -Face2Face, offers the stance that the Bangladeshi industry makers should adopt in order to get through the choppy waters of Energy Crisis, Escalating Raw Materials Cost, and Faltering Economies.
Welcome to Face2Face, Mr. Jabbar! ‘twas pretty interesting to know you are a computer science graduate from US, and still chose textiles to IT as career, amidst of high dearth of IT professionals in eighties in Bangladesh. Here, I wish to take the opportunity to know if it was just an instinct or well-calculated choice.
Well, I would say it was more about carrying forward the legacy of doing business rather than personal instinct or calculation. Before getting on board, I analyzed the opportunity cost of choosing either of the two options. My stay in USA helped me to foresee the promising future of the apparel industry of Bangladesh. I took the choice of entering into the T&C sector instead of IT, which hardly had any footprints in Bangladesh back then. I had never imagined back then what I have achieved today. Now I guess there is no turning back!
So, what is the expert’s say on T&C industry world over, and in Bangladesh?
It is no doubt that the T&C industry is the most important and vibrant sector of Bangladesh. It has been a significant contributor to the economy of Bangladesh. The forecast for the T&C Sector of Bangladesh is bright with more buyers pouring into the country. The proven economic contribution of this sector in the country’s growth allures investors from other industries to diversify their investments into the T&C industry of Bangladesh.
Energy crisis, Raw material inflation, EU economy faltering; a range of issues queued up to be solved by Bangladesh to maintain its apparel exporter rank. What say? In your view, how should industry makers take these challenges and get resilient to such impacts?
I would say ‘There is no reason to panic’. I have learnt one thing in life which is that no matter what happens and however big the problem maybe, there is always a solution to it. There exist a number of measures, which the manufacturers in the country may adopt to counter such adversities. For example, in our company we have captive power plant with capacity of 35 MW that readily solves the energy crisis issue.
As far as the raw materials price inflation is concerned, we have been able to adjust the price by the cooperation of our buyers.
Speaking from my own experience, we had participated in a project called ‘Cleaner Production’, which was organized by the International Finance Corporation. Through Cleaner Production, we have been able to reduce significant consumption of gas, electricity, water and steam. Impacts on natural resources have reduced and there is less emissions of carbon dioxide in the production process.
Challenges will remain and it is only through our ability that we can overcome it.
Very true.
Sir, your Group is preferred supplier to big ticket retailers like Esprit, H&M etc.. What needs to be key ingredients to hook up and sustain such big businesses?
Working on environmental impact reduction, social up-liftment, investments in new technology & projects and aligning our resources with the buyers’ business strategy and growth plans are among the major ingredients for sustaining business with our buyers.
Recently, sources say that your group has rigorous expansion drive on anvil. Is it? What all- may we as well as our investor community know too?
Yes, we do have formidable expansion plans. These are both on the upfront apparels manufacturing with diversified product line and supporting backward linkage industries.
Environment and Humanity- both are victims at stake lately by textile processing houses. How does your group ensure its operations safe in this regards?
Environmental Management is a focused area of working for us. In all of our projects, we are using energy efficient machineries with less environmental impacts. We have Biological ETP (Effluent Treatment Plant) with a capacity of 4000 cubic meters, which is the largest ETP in the country and also we are in the process of having another ETP with the capacity of 7500 cubic meters soon.
Moreover, we have set up an Environmental & Energy Management team, dedicatedly working to oversee that our impacts are reduced consistently. Gas, Electricity, Water, Steam, Compressed Air data are monitored regularly for improvements. We have been able to achieve reduction in carbon dioxide emissions in producing per kg of fabric by 28% through implementation of the ‘Cleaner Production’ program of International Finance Corporation. We are also involved in Responsible Sourcing Initiative project of The World Bank and Energy Savings Initiative project of GIZ.
Thanks a bunch, Mr. Jabbar for the invigorative words. We look forward to such more interactions.
Most Welcome.
http://www.fibre2fashion.com
