Under the Radar: Behind the clothes sold in Macy’s, Walmart – Singapore’s Ghim Li on the importance of vertical integration, growth trends in clothing OEM and ODM, impact of the green push on top and bottom lines

The Evening Runway with Hongbin Jeong, Roshan Gidwani and Chua Tian Tian

Today we’re going to talk about a company behind the clothes you buy while on holiday in the US.

This is because that piece of garment you’ve bought from retail giants Walmart and Macy’s could very well be traced back to Singaporean textile and clothing maker Ghim Li!

Founded all the way back in 1977 with a collection of six sewing machines and a capital injection of US$3,000, Ghim Li has evolved to become an Asia-wide textile and apparel maker of casual lifestyle knitwear.

The company prides itself as a one-stop shop that integrates various parts of the apparel manufacturing supply chain, providing services from product design, development and commercialisation, material management, production planning and control, to post manufacturing logistics.

Today, the Singapore-headquartered and Australia-listed firm has international sales offices and contracted manufacturing partners in Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, and a workforce of over 8,000.

Its supplies over 62 million pieces of garments a year to some of the biggest Fortune 500 companies such as Macys Aeropostale, Foot Locker, and Walmart, and also provides ODM (Original Design and Manufacture) as well as OEM solutions to customers.

But what has been the company’s secret recipe for success thus far and how far can that be attributed to the firm’s control over its supply chains?

What will be the key drivers of growth looking ahead? Also – how far would the ongoing push for sustainability in the fashion industry influence the way Ghim Li approaches its business?

On Under the Radar, The Evening Runway’s finance presenter Chua Tian Tian posed these questions to Felicia Gan, CEO, Ghim Li Group of Companies.

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