Kwong Lung Enterprise Co (光隆實業), which manufactures garments for clothing brands and supplies down, expects garment orders to continue increasing in the second half of this year and plans to add eight garment production lines to a total of 84 at its Vietnamese plants.
“Our garment business has grown 40 percent annually in sales in the first half of the year and we expect double-digit percentage growth this year,” a company official told the Taipei Times by telephone on Thursday.
“Orders from our top five customers have shown a steady growth of between 10 and 15 percent this year,” said the official, who asked to remain anonymous. “The growing momentum is expected to continue in the second half.”
Kwong Lung’s customers include Nike Inc, Uniqlo owner Fast Retailing Co, Montbell Co Ltd and Nishikawa Co Ltd.
Revenue for the first six months climbed 15.91 percent year-on-year to NT$5.19 billion (US$165.4 million), driven by the garment business, a more diversified product portfolio and the company’s strategy to encourage customers to place more orders in the first quarter, a low season for the down business, Kwong Lung said.
Garments accounted for more than 40 percent of total sales in the first half of the year, compared with 38 percent a year earlier, and the proportion is expected to climb to 50 percent in three years, as such products possess higher margins, the official said.
Down sales fell to about 30 percent, compared with 34 percent over the same period last year, but the official said that demand for down might remain stable or go up in the second half of the year.
“The price of down was on a slowly declining trend last quarter in light of decreased demand in China due to the US-China trade dispute, but the price stopped falling last month,” the official said.
The company plans to build a new plant in Vietnam in the first quarter of next year for home textiles, which contributed 22 percent to sales in the first six months, the official added.
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