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Small garment workshops going their own way
Small garment producers affirm that they can cement positions in the domestic market even though consumers are tightening their belts and they have to compete fiercely with China-made products.
Lack of diverse designs – the shortcoming of domestic products
In early June, some garment wholesalers from Hanoi met each other at An Dong Market in HCM City, unintentionally. The noteworthy thing was that the wholesalers once specialised in importing garment products from China to sell domestically, but at that time they were in HCM City to place orders with small garment workshops there.
Lien, who was seeking to purchase clothes to sell on Hang Dao street, a big clothing centre in Hanoi, said that consumers nowadays favour Vietnamese products.
Lien said she wanted to find big garment workshops which can provide high-quality products according to the designs provided by clients. Lien spent four days wandering An Dong and Tan Binh markets and then placed some orders with some garment workshops, satisfied with the initial results.
According to Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan, the owner of a garment workshop which specialises in providing garment products for Tan Binh Market, domestic garment workshops still can find their own positions in the domestic clothing market. She said that the biggest weakness of domestic products is the lack of diversity of designs of products.
Ngan related that she is now focusing on making fashionable products with designs from catalogues from France and South Korea.
According to Dung Phuong, the owner of a garment wholesale shop at An Dong Market, most China-made clothes have the common weakness that they have too many patterns. Suits and T-shirts, shirts and dresses all are designed with lace, or dripping with colourful glass beads. Meanwhile, wholesalers from the north and central region all say consumers prefer clothes with simple designs but with good tailoring and made of select fabrics.
Regarding sale prices, Nguyen Thy, the owner of Hoang Mai Garment Company, said that domestic workshops can compete with China-made products if they can organise production well. Thy said that her company offers samples to clients and then begins production quickly to fulfill orders, which allows her to minimise her stock. Thy also said that her company makes products which have sale prices accepted by the market.
Durability and high quality – the advantages
Nguyen Thi Anh Hoa, the owner of Thanh Thao garment company, believes that Vietnam-made garment products have advantages over China-made products. Vietnam’s products apply modern tailoring techniques; therefore, they have high durability.
Hoa related that she once visited wholesale markets in Guang Dong and Guang Zhou and she has come to the conclusion that if clients have good designs and then order domestic workshops to make products, they will get lower-cost products and even post-delivery services from producers.
Ngo Thi Bau, Director of Foci, a fashion company, said that Vietnamese youth now prefer the South Korean style, which has prompted some Vietnamese producers to pursue a new way of doing business. They import garment materials from South Korea and consider South Korean fashion models, and then make South Korean-style products in Vietnam.
A recent survey by Business Studies and Assistance Centre (BSA), showed that South Korean films have influenced the fashion style of 65.4 percent of young people in Vietnam, while Europe has influenced only 19.1 percent and domestic fashion collections only 7.4 percent.
Having realised that China-made garment products are very cheap but do not have a special style, Nguyen Thi Hai, the owner of Hanoi supermarket chain, said that she has decided to inject money in producing garment products which she will distribute to shops in Hanoi and other localities.
“We can import cheap garment materials from China, select the designs which fit the tastes of Vietnamese consumers, make products on modern production lines of garment companies. These factors will allow us to have cheap products, both durable and fashionable,” Hai said.
VietNamNet, SGTT
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