EXCEL CLOTHING

COMPANY PROFILE

2013

Fast fashion, quick thinking

Since it opened its doors in 1999, Excel Clothing has outlived three quarters of its competition in the industrial area of Ladysmith in KwaZulu-Natal; where once stood 12 clothing manu-facturers, only three have survived, and CEO Pierre Boshoff owes a portion of its success to the company’s ‘ability to adapt’.

“I believe that in the industrial area we are situated there used to be 12 Cut, Make and Trim (CMT) factories, there are only three left. I’ll base that purely on our ability to adapt and having very strong relationships with our suppliers” he says, and it was through this ability to adapt and offer ‘something special’ to the market, Excel Clothing grew from a humble 34 employees to a staff complement of 242, 238 of whom are women.

“I had a vision that my CMT factory could be more efficient than my competitors, I guess I saw a gap in the market, and by the end of 99’ Excel had already doubled its employees and at that stage we had a foot

in the door with Edgars and Mr Price,” says Mr Boshoff.

After nine years of employment and experience gained at various clothing manufacturers in South Africa, Mr Boshoff decided to ‘go it alone’, and in 2002 he was approached by The Foschini Group (TFG), “TFG approached me through Peter Flowers who was production director, to consider doing work for them, and at that stage TFG was looking for local suppliers outside of Cape Town who would be able to produce more affordable fashion for them, and the rest as they say, is history.”

FAST-FASHIONExcel’s relationship with TFG has opened up many opportunities, including being chosen to become part of the fashion group’s fast-fashion cluster, “There are five factories, four of them are situated in Cape Town, we’re the only one in KwaZulu-Natal that’s part of the fast-fashion cluster.

COMPANY REPORT

Editorial: Lauren GreyProduction: Tonnie Geddes

PAGE 2 APR 13

Fast fashion, quick thinking Since its inception in 1999, Excel Clothing quickly established itself as one of South Africa’s most successful clothing manufacturers, ‘and the rest’ says CEO Pierre Boshoff, ‘is history’. IndustrySA talks to the entrepreneur to find out more about the company’s past, present and future.

It’s been extremely exciting for us” says Mr Boshoff.The fast-fashion cluster is based on the idea that,

to operate in an industry of constant change, it is essential that a supply chain is able to continually adapt to meet the needs of the consumer, which over time, have changed dramatically.

It has been said that the modern-day fashionista no longer wants expensive, long-lasting pieces, instead she wants cheaper alternatives that can be bought on impulse to freshen up her wardrobe; it is essential therefore, that collections are replenished quickly and clothing manufacturers keep up to speed with consumer demand.

“It’s made the business more viable” says Mr Boshoff, “if you look at the fast-fashion principle, it’s all about being able to give the consumer out there what he wants quickly… it’s all about that quick, freshness that we’re bringing about and that’s been extremely exciting.”

Through the fast-fashion cluster, Excel Clothing

are now manufacturing garments in no more than 16 days from receiving of fabric to store, which Mr Boshoff says ‘has not been done in this area before’, “we’re doing something special, and through us, through our ability to do something special and our special offering to the market place we are able to contribute to a changing industry.”

THE ZARA MODELThe economic slowdown has been felt by all indus-tries across the globe, and the clothing sector has seen manufacturing and production opportunities decrease and even sent further east due to cheaper labour, but Mr Boshoff explains that this is changing.

“We don’t see the six or seven hundred thousand unit orders that we used to see 10 years ago, so we’ve had to adapt and adapt very quickly” he says. Instead, Mr Boshoff says he started to notice more demand for a wider variety of styles which needed to be produced quicker in order to keep up with the consumer.

EXCEL CLOTHING

APR 13 PAGE 3

“There is orders of a lot wider variety and lesser quantity, so you’re not getting 600,000 unit orders, but you are getting one, maybe 2000 unit orders of a wide variety of styles, and our ability to produce them efficiently, on time and in full has kept us going.”

He continues, “They [eastern production] are much cheaper than I am, but the recent findings from the fast-fashion cluster have found that, based on the Zara model, fashion retailers are looking to place more orders locally, due to the quick turnaround-ability because local manufacturers have the ability to have a fresh, new, quick response to what the consumer out there wants.”

Zara, now the world’s largest fashion retailer, has adopted a new model of production, whereby its’ more popular styles are produced closer to home, so that the production process, from start to finish, takes only two to three weeks.

“Zara is very interesting, it’s an extremely successful model, it actually works, and we’ve just started, we embarked on it in 2009, and we’re really just scratching

the surface” says Mr Boshoff, and in order to follow the model and create a quicker production process, Excel Clothing only supply to local fashion retailers.

Zara’s model has been extremely successful because it knows exactly what the consumer wants, in a piece for The New York Times, Suzy Hansen writes, “They [Zara] also monitor customers’ reactions, on the basis of what they buy and don’t buy, and what they say to a sales clerk: “I like this scooped collar” or “I hate zippers at the ankles” … Every day, store managers report this information to headquarters, where it is then transmitted to a vast team of in-house designers, who quickly develop new designs and send them to factories to be turned into clothes,” which is where clothing manufacturers such as Excel come into the process.

Although Zara’s model requires higher labour costs, these costs are offset by greater flexibility, for example, when Zara envision a fall collection, they only produce a limited amount of each style to their stores, so there’s very little stock left over.

COMPANY REPORT

PAGE 4 APR 13

EXCEL CLOTHING

FUTURE PLANSExcel Clothing currently specialises in the manufac-turing of ladies wear for two of the main ladies wear suppliers in South Africa, TFG and Truworths, and over the past three years, Mr Boshoff has focused all of his attention on the company’s business model, ensuring that it is in line with the fast-fashion concept, and says that he can now concentrate on future plans.

“It’s all about being able to give the consumer out there what he wants quickly… it’s all about that quick, freshness that we’re bringing about and that’s been extremely exciting.”

PROFUSE INTERLININGS (PTY) LIMITED

A level 3 BEE Company

PROFUSE started trading in June 1991 as an importer and distributor ofQuality “A” grade Non Woven, Woven and Knitted interlinings.We have established a reputation for quality and service and offer full technical backup and product training to all users of our products.

PROFUSE is pro-active in introducing new products into South Africa which are compatible with new modern fabrics. All new products are fully tested and approved overseas before introduction into South Africa.

PROFUSE can be contacted at the following numbers :-

Contact Johannesburg Durban Cape TownTelephone 011-402-0222 031-305-8299 021-534-1795 Fax 011-402-5918 086-731-7070 021-534-2200 eMail slave1@tekomsa.net capitaltex@hit.co.za kevin@impahla.co.za

“I have used the last three years to get the foundations sorted, we are now doing things a lot more cleverly, and we are now ready for the next thing. We’re all watching the Rand to the Dollar, regarding exports and looking at opportunities offshore, but locally I’ll be looking at diversifying my supplier base and getting another supplier on board.”

“We’ve been approached by Exact who started their own men’s wear range last year; we are presently costing jackets, men’s jackets and boys jackets , so that’s definitely a market we are looking at,” he says.

With so much going on in the company, and as Mr Boshoff wants to start designing his own ladies’ wear range, there are more opportunities for employment and growth within the company, which Mr Boshoff says is ‘very exciting’..

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