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G. Gurumurthy

TIRUPUR, Nov.1

"YOU don't select who your customers are. Customers will select who their suppliers will be". This seems to be the message for the Rs 4,000-crore knitwear garment exporting town of Tirupur which is bracing up for the quota-free global garment trading 18 months from now.

The message from the garment buyers from the European Union is loud and clear. That even while the Tirupur knitwear producers are up to date with their production skills and meeting the importers' delivery tasks, the same cannot be said about the "customer-orientation" - in terms of product development or factory managerial capabilities.

The "customer focus" expected out of Tirupur knitters will run through such of those managerial practices such as improving skills in designing, product development, setting labour standards and social code of conduct for workers motivation that covers the gamut of wages, work-hours and overtime.

These views of European buyers outsourcing from Tirupur are succinctly put forward by at least two of the European expert consultants on garmenting and garment marketing - Mr Hans Hunink and Mr Johan Laman Trip, both representing the Netherlands Government sponsored agency, the Centre for Promotion of Imports from Developing Countries (CBI) which has been interacting with Tirupur knitwear industry for more than two decades offering support services in the areas of building export competitiveness of Tirupur knitters.

"Tirupur producers should achieve a shift in the `mind-set' from production-oriented to market-driven, though many garment companies in Tirupur veot planned for it. This is a major challenge to be accomplished within the next 18 months from now," feels Mr Trip.

Mr Trip is of the view that the fashion garments at display in the Tirupur exporters' showrooms should reflect the buyers' needs and their seasons.

This will mean Tirupur industry is to acquire its own knowledge base for product development.

Mr Hunink and Mr Trip are on a visit to the Tirupur-based units as part of the `Tirupur Target 2005', a supportive programme for the small and medium knitwear enterprises in export competitiveness being implemented by the Tirupur Exporters Association (TEA) with the CBI.

The CBI and the TEA have identified 29 garment companies in Tirupur, which are `keen' to participate in the supportive programme to achieve the `critical competitiveness factors' (CCF).

Though the number of units joining the programme is minuscule compared to the total exporters in Tirupur, these may be a `pilot' group, which may cause a `ripple' effect on others in the industry to follow suit, feels Mr S.R. Ponnusamy, TEA Secretary.

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