What Bangladesh offers to global garment industry, other textile exporting nations do not: millions of skilled workers who can churn out huge amounts of good quality made-ups and apparel at seemingly lightning pace-and all for the lowest wages in the world.
But, since the twin disasters of the Tazreen fire and the Rana plaza collapse-the deadliest accidental structural failure in modern history-Bangladesh has gone from being the global textile industrys biggest darlings to one of its biggest liabilities.
With working conditions in Bangladeshs garment factories having already drawn out red flags from international buyers, many cited the collapse of the eight-storey building that housed several garment factories as the straw that would break the proverbial camels back.
As a massive global uproar ensued, the United States cut back long-time trade benefits for Bangladesh. That move was largely symbolic as it did not directly affect the countrys apparel exports, as garments are not eligible for US duty cuts.
However, as the worlds largest textile and apparel market, the United States generates a great deal of interest amongst global textiles suppliers, many of whom catch the bug every time America so much as sneezes. And for a while Dhaka had to face the frightening possibility that the EU might take a similar action, which would have essentially crippled the Bengali textile sector.
But the fears turned out to be baseless as the draw of dirt cheap labour was seemingly too hard to resist. Faced with the choice to either stay and improve working conditions or leave and face higher costs in other regional sourcing destinations (with similarly shady working standards)-Western brands have decided to stick to the latter option, at least for now.
Only a few brands have exhibited interest in investing in the countrys textile landscape and currently a massive phasing-out from the use of factories within multi-tenant buildings is under way.
But, even as some of the big name buyers including Disney bow out of the Bengali market, demand for the countrys apparel remains strong: data compiled by the BGMEA confirms that despite the massive global outcry, dispatches to both EU and America have actually managed grow by 10 percent at the close of FY13.
Going forward, despite the liability it presents, Bangladesh will continue to be among the top three apparel sourcing destinations over the next five years, a new survey by American consulting firm McKinsey & Co confirmed.
The report, however, does indicate that the recent industrial accidents weigh heavily on the minds of international retailers: only 52 percent of the respondents ranked Bangladesh among the top three country hotspots this time around as opposed to more than 80 percent who did so in the previous edition of the survey conducted last year.
But, the countrys $20 billion garment sector still came ahead of rivals Vietnam and Cambodia in the ranking of countries with the highest potential for future sourcing. Explaining the phenomena, Julie Hughes, president of the US Association of Importers of Textiles and Apparel, was quoted by the Washington Post saying that while there is no apparent shortage of cheap labour and garment factories around the world, "it takes months or even years to establish relationships with new factories that retailers can trust to turn out large volumes of garments to their specifications on time".
Playing on these sentiments, Dhaka is currently vying for time while it butts heads with its own textile labour forces over measures to reform the industry. A revised labour law is reportedly in the works to allow workers to form trade unions as a committee revises minimum wage standards.
In the past month or so, regular political protests and strikes by the textile workers on this account have disrupted business activities and there have been some diversions of orders. But, India more than Pakistan is set to benefit from these diversions-which may be very short-lived, much to the chagrin of the regional apparel producers.
Other corporate results
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BUXLY PAINTS LIMITED
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Rs (mn) FY13 FY12 Chg
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Sales - net 142 115 24%
Cost of sales 118 96 23%
Gross profit 24 19 31%
Other income 2.1 1.0 125%
Profit before tax 0.8 2.8 -70%
Profit after tax 0.2 1.7 -86%
EPS (Rs) - basic 0.09 1.15
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Source: KSE notice
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GLOBE TEXTILE MILLS (OE) LIMITED
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Rs (mn) FY13 FY12 Chg
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Sales - net 776 611 27%
Cost of sales 731 566 29%
Gross profit 45.2 45.1 0.1%
Operating profit 15.0 19.9 -24%
Other operating income 2.4 3.4 -30%
Profit before tax 4.6 1.6 189%
Profit / (loss) after tax 0.3 -10.8
EPS (Rs) - basic 0.06 -2.31
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Source: KSE notice
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CRESTEX TEXTILE MILLS LIMITED
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Rs (mn) FY13 FY12 Chg
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Sales - net 13262 12729 4%
Cost of sales 11774 11215 5%
Gross profit 1488 1514 -2%
Operating profit 802 857 -6%
Profit before tax 247 -17
Profit after tax 112 -117
EPS (Rs) - basic 2.27 -2.38
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Source: KSE notice
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WAH NOBEL CHEMICALS LIMITED
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Rs (mn) FY13 FY12 Chg
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Turnover - net 1211 1148 6%
Cost of sales 977 958 2%
Gross profit 234 390 -40%
Operating profit 157 119 32%
Other income 11 7 52%
Profit before tax 156 117 33%
Profit after tax 115 74 56.29%
EPS (Rs) - basic 12.80 8.19
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Source: KSE notice
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SHADAB TEXTILE MILLS LIMITED
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Rs (mn) FY13 FY12 Chg
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Sales - net 1785 1620 10%
Cost of sales 1572 1525 3%
Gross profit 213 95 125%
Operating profit 178 66 171%
Profit before tax 137 26 419%
Profit after tax 112 21 438%
EPS (Rs) - basic 37.39 6.95
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Source: KSE notice
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SARGODHA SPINNING MILLS LIMITED
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Rs (mn) FY13 FY12 Chg
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Sales - net 2976 2338 27%
Cost of sales 2704 2206 23%
Gross profit 271 132 106%
Operating profit 149 41 262%
Profit before tax 87 -39
Profit after tax 64 -62
EPS (Rs) - basic 2.04 -1.97
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Source: KSE notice
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ASHFAQ TEXTILE MILLS LIMITED
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Rs (mn) FY13 FY12 Chg
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Sales - net 795 931 -15%
Cost of sales 870 772 13%
Gross profit 125 159 -21%
Other operating income 23
Profit before tax 76 77 -2%
Profit after tax 69 69 0%
EPS (Rs) - basic 3.18 5.60
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Source: KSE notice
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DIN TEXTILE MILLS LIMITED
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Rs (mn) FY13 FY12 Chg
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Sales - net 8296 7358 13%
Cost of sales 6909 7564 -9%
Gross profit 1387 -205
Other operating income 15 22
Profit before tax 834 -834
Profit after tax 734 -659
EPS (Rs) - basic 35.99 -32.84
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Source: KSE notice
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KHYBER TOBACCO COMPANY LIMITED
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Rs (mn) FY13 FY12 Chg
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Turnover - net 914 701 30%
Cost of sales 824 495 67%
Gross profit 90 207 -56%
Other operating income 5 2 92%
Profit before tax 38 145 -74%
Profit after tax 22 135 -84%
EPS (Rs) - basic 18.08 112.26
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Source: KSE notice
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