Leisure Clothing Ltd (Malta), the island’s only Chinese-owned textile manufacturer, has secured a contract with Giorgio Armani and is finalising another with Hugo Boss, managing director Han Bin told The Sunday Times.
Mr Han said the Armani house was impressed with the product of Leisure Clothing’s design development unit and the Malta plant will now be entrusted with the manufacture of some pieces of first line production to feature in the 2011 autumn/winter main collection.
Meanwhile, trial production orders for Hugo Boss begin later this month.
The company, a subsidiary of the China Chongqing International Corporation for Economic and Technical Cooperation, already boasts a glamorous portfolio of clients, including Jaeger, Karen Millen, Aquascutum, Ted Baker, Austin Reed, Whistles, Hobbs, Coast, and Daks.
The 4,200-square metre plant in Bulebel is a specialist in women’s fine tailoring and has a capacity to manufacture up to 200,000 jackets, dresses, trousers and skirts yearly to impeccable standards.
Annual exports are valued at between €3 million and €5 million.
This week, Leisure Clothing is to sign an agreement with Malta Enterprise to take over an adjacent factory which will add 1,500 square metres in factory floor space to accommodate a new warehouse and pressing room.
Mr Han explained that Leisure Clothing, which opened 23 years ago, was the first Chinese investment in Malta, and is now the last Chinese-owned operation in the textile sector. It currently employs over 160 Maltese and Chinese staff. Internal processes are audited by Intertek, the global ethical code verifier.
Mr Han said that contrary to the trend which had seen the local textile industry dwindle over recent years, Leisure Clothing was now looking to expand even further in future.
He explained that the company was successfully bouncing back from the recession: Leisure Clothing took a significant hit as its main export market, the UK, suffered a severe downturn, but redundancies were not on the agenda.
“We identified other solutions to remain in Malta,” Mr Han pointed out. “We restructured our product and moved from the lower to mid-range tier to a specific high value output targeting high profile customers such as international design houses.
“Textile manufacturing in Europe now faces significant cost competition from the Far East and Arab regions, but the ‘Made in Malta’ label is considered to be more prestigious by clients such as ours.”
Over the past three years, Leisure Clothing had channelled over €2 million into its restructuring programme, Mr Han added, as it acquired equipment – some from Bortex Clothing, whom it partnered in some projects for years before it moved its production lines to Tunisia – and expanded its marketing, design, development and patent units to offer a complete business-to-business process based in Malta.
It has also worked hard to establish relationships with some of Europe’s best mills and trim suppliers.
Now exporting to the UK, Italy and Germany, Mr Han revealed that Leisure Clothing had also recently been approached by Valentino, as marketing efforts at international trade fairs and, more importantly, the company’s reputation for fine workmanship were producing the desired results.
Even locally, Leisure Clothing was winning contracts indirectly, such as for Air Malta and Bank of Valletta, and also produced a limited amount of stock for Bortex’s growing retail network.
Once the expansion plan of the production floor is finalised, top management officials of several foreign clients are expected to visit the Maltese factory, the managing director added.
Leisure Clothing’s parent now intends to invest further in the Bulebel project to potent-ially establish it as a regional headquarters, overseeing and developing business in neighbouring countries.
The staff complement, which, Mr Han pointed out had progressively involved more Chinese workers as highly skilled Maltese machine operators became harder to recruit, will soon increase its Maltese intake as it seeks to fill vacancies in a number of positions, including middle management.
Mr Han, who expressed his gratitude to the Maltese authorities for their collaboration, said he now hoped they would continue to be supportive of Leisure Clothing’s achievements and recognise its contribution to Maltese exports and to the reputation of local manufacturing standards.