Logwin expands in China, set sights on Bangladesh

Logwin's strength in logistics services for the retail textiles sector will see further expansion as the company looks to Bangladesh for future growth, chief operating officer Helmut Kaspers told Cargonews Asia on the sidelines of a recent conference in Shanghai.

The company recently expanded its operations in China, moving to a 6,000 sq m container freight station in the Lingang district of Shanghai close to Yangshan port and established a 2,000 sq m logistics facility in Baoshan in the north of Shanghai.

"The fashion industry requires certain skills and a high degree of flexibility due to the fact that it can run up to 12 collections a year. You need very skilful people who have knowledge of the product. You can't ship it like you ship machinery, for example, and that is why we focus our expertise more towards high quality products," said Kaspers.

The Baoshan facility brings further value-added services into Logwin's textiles logistics supply chain, including quality checking, price tagging, sorting, labelling, scanning and pick and pack.

And according to Kaspers, this is the key. He said that over the years a trend has clearly emerged in which companies would rather buy services from a third party than do it themselves.

"If the task if something you don't have to do for yourself then you don't have to have someone on the payroll to do it. We don't do it for one customer we do it for a whole bunch so we have larger volumes and it gives us a chance to optimise the process and really direct our workforce," said Kaspers.

He also said value-added services received a boost following the recent devastating recession with companies looking at fixed costs and trying to allocate as much as possible to third parties.

"We've grown with the fashion industry, so our development starting in 1972 has been basically following the trends of the industry, which is why we have good coverage in Southeast Asia nowadays."

He said textiles logistics was a stable sector and one of Logwin's key market areas contributing around one-third of its total business. "What we have been doing over the past couple of years is placing Logwin as the medium-sized alternative to the big boys.

"The next step that we are looking at is an expansion in Bangladesh. In other countries we are working on an agency agreement with a long-term agent and what we are currently doing is looking into the possibilities of setting up a similar venture in Bangladesh."

The company plans to expand into Bangladesh in the same way they've expanded into other Asian countries, with a local office and supporting warehousing facility. Kaspers said something the company was not planning to do was operate its own truck fleet or enter into similar activities.

"We don't do that in Europe and we won't do it here. Our capabilities are in the management of the supply chain and that is what we see as our strength and will continue to do."

Kaspers said Bangladesh was strong when it came to the production of T-shirts and jeans, noting that companies did not want to rely on one producer in one location and would prefer to source different products from different regions.
(Source:www.cargonewsasia.com)