Safety jacket for garment firms

Fifteen big firms and representatives from textile, garment production and commercial services sectors in the textile and garment industry just clinched an undertaking with Vinatex to save at least 5 per cent in total costs in 2012.

As estimated, the programme could help Vinatex save VND178.6 billion ($8.5 million), raising its proposed full-year profit target in 2012 from VND1.5 trillion ($71.4 million) to approximately VND1.7 trillion ($81 million).

 2012 is another hardship year for local textile-garment sector on the back of sagging demand in major export markets in the US and EU.

To regain this $8.5 million, Vinatex’s member units have to apply a raft of synchronised measures to save fuel and materials, abate stockpiles and curtail administrative costs.  

A Vinatex member, Garment 10 Corporation aggressively embraced cost-saving measures from 2011 which helped it post VND33 billion ($1.5 million) in 2011 profits (not including profits of its affiliated and joint venture firms).  

Garment 10’s general director Nguyen Thi Thanh Huyen said saving in construction would play a key role in diverse facets of project implementation. At Garment 10, it took seven months for its Hung Ha Suit Enterprise to complete construction and ship its first container of garment products to foreign markets.

In 2011, Vinatex member companies saved VND741.9 billion ($35.3 million) through innovating production management to boost productivity and applying a diverse range of cost-saving measures in yarn production, textile and dyeing areas.

Though undertaking to slash at least 5 per cent in costs, Vinatex’s member companies still promised to hike labourers’ pay by 15 per cent.

According to Nha Be Garment Joint Stock Corporation chairman Duong Thi Ngoc Dung, labour costs occupied up to 65 per cent in production costs and even hit 70 per cent in Ho Chi Minh City-based enterprises.

“Ensuring labourers’ pay is a tough task for enterprises, but it is worth striving [for],” said Dung.