Transformers: industry in 'troubling’ situation, but Pakistan’s future ‘very bright’
15/09/2021
During a panel session moderated by Gavilan AD founder and Kingpins Show technology leader Miguel Sanchez, Crescent Bahuman textile dyeing manager Suat Özdemir, Sapphire denim manager Michele Biancamano and Naveena Denim technical director Mazhar Qayyum discussed the challenges of contemporary denim production.
Notably, the panel framed denim mills as sites of innovation, focused on solutions to technical and environmental issues, in particular – no longer only trend-led producers.
Mr Özdemir underlined the difficulty in manufacturing “sustainable” product using conventional machinery. He said that the key to this is making equivalent (or “acceptable”) products by using regular machinery, while at the same time looking to implement policies that can measurably reduce overall water consumption.
Mr Biancamano, meanwhile, stressed how, from his perspective, the industry is in a “troubling” situation. Buyers “want everything, plus more,” he noted, and separately added that the term “sustainability” is used too much throughout the industry at present.
Compromise is needed, the panel agreed, as mills are caught between competing demands of reduced prices from customers on the one hand, while also finding themselves having to pay their own supply base higher prices for organic cotton (as just one example) on the other.
Mr Sanchez concurred that the industry was experiencing a “time of confusion”.
For his part, Mr Qayyum singled out complicated logistics (including unpredictable lead times and, by extension, the need to boost business agility) and decreased salaries, owing to the negative effects of the covid-19 pandemic on supply chains worldwide, as considerable points of tension across the industry.
However, he also highlighted his personal excitement as to generation Z (generally those born between the years 1997 and 2012)’s more “knowledgeable” role in the denim market and bestowed his praise upon the younger denim trainees in attendance.
Extending this positive note, Mr Özdemir also said that he was looking forward to the standardisation of various waterless dyeing methods across the board, while Mr Qayyum added that, in his eyes, the Pakistani denim industry’s future is not only “very bright”, but also a source of great national pride.
Powered by Zoom, Transformers ED Pakistan has been supported by both Crescent Bahuman and Diamond Denim parent, Sapphire.
Image: Crescent Bahuman in Lahore.
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