Southeastern Yarn Sales Makes Inroads in Africa
April 3, 2001
Global Supplier Forms Partnership to Reopen Mills for Production of Yarn
Hickory, NC (USA) - West Africa is the Land of Opportunity for Southeastern Yarn Sales. The 30-year-old U.S. company partnered with a Malaysian textile producer who is purchasing a mill in Senegal and plans to start production on its 35,000 spindles in the second quarter of this year. The partners are in the process of refurbishing another mill in Mali, and are looking into other possibilities in Benin and Ghana.
"Africa is just beginning to bud. We're looking at everything. It's going to be a hotbed in textiles," said Ken Winston, chief operating officer, who has been sourcing textiles from Africa for about 11 years. "We think we've got a one-up there because we've already been there for so long." The company already sources mohair throws and blankets from a mill in South Africa, but West Africa is where both Winston and the company's current owner, Bill Taylor, see the greatest promise for their future growth.
"They've got a huge labor pool," added Bill Taylor, who with his father purchased Southeastern Yarn Sales in 1999 from Winston. "It's the last bastion of untapped business in the world. We're treading lightly there, but we believe it will be a great source of production and we'll be positioned on the front side of the curve." His plans include production of finished goods in Senegal.
Despite its promise, Africa has been a neglected area of the world, continued Taylor, which makes it a more difficult area to open. "Nothing is easy or quick in Africa," agreed Winston. "It's full of surprises."
Once the current project of upgrading and revitalizing the Marzoli textile equipment has been completed, equipment installed by the French and left behind in the mid-'80s, the mill will sell export quality yarn, explained Winston. In the future, the owners will restart the mill's 160 looms and resume sewing, dyeing and finishing. In the meantime, Southeastern Yarn Sales will assume the risk of merchandising all of the yarn produced at the Senegal mill.
But risky undertakings have characterized Southeastern Yarn Sales from its inception. Winston began the company - then called Winston Yarns - in 1970 as an agent for domestic mills. Then in 1982, when U.S. inflation and interest rates hit an all-time high of 22 percent and mills started selling directly to the converters, the going got tough. But having mounted the notoriously unpredictable bronco called Middle Man in the textile arena - not a career for the fainthearted - Winston chose to stay on. He formed Southeastern Yarn Sales, Inc., a global supplier of yarns.
In just the past two years, imports have boosted the growth of Southeastern Yarn Sales Inc. by sevenfold, said Winston. Today, the multi-million dollar company trades with countries from thirteen hours ahead to ten hours behind its North Carolina time, including Malaysia, Pakistan, Syria and other Middle Eastern countries, Spain, England, Mexico, Peru, Indonesia, Africa and South Africa.
The company began to source for the home furnishing field in late 1999 with home furnishing yarns spun in Malaysia, and already counts among its customers such well known names as Pillowtex, Springs, Fieldcrest Cannon and WestPoint Stevens.
"It's a wonderful mill near Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia, producing high quality yarns used for towels, bed sheets and apparel items," said Winston. "We're their largest customer."
Not satisfied with just sourcing yarn, the company started sourcing fabric and already sells a finished product made in Peru of alpaca and silk yarn that competes with the popular pashmina scarves and shawls in the U.S. marketplace. Now, after nearly two decades of experience with banks, ship lines, freight forwarders and agents around the world, Southeastern Yarn has proven its mettle and has an edge in global sourcing, he said.
In its early days, the company only imported fabrics that the U.S. industry was not producing, such as the higher counts of pima cotton and the flame retardant yarns used in airline seating. But in the 90's, in response to demand from U.S. retailers, Southeastern Yarns began to source mid to low-end yarns from Pakistan.
"These are what I call the 'rock-em-sock-em' yarns, the commodity yarns used to make goods sold in the big department stores such as Wal-mart, K-Mart, JC Penney and Target. The push for lower price points on yarns in the U.S. really came from these large retailers," said Winston. But the stores were so big that their volume could dictate this low price.
In fact, it was the success of these megastores that drove U.S. wholesale textile prices into the proverbial basement and sent wholesalers and converters abroad in search of the best deals. But finding those deals at a quality adequate for the U.S. market, Winston said, can be elusive. It requires travel, observation and worldly savvy.
"You have to know the culture of the countries in which you do business. You have to know their holidays and customs. And as much as the big U.S. retailers demand price, they have strict criteria for sourcing. It has always been our policy to not sell yarn from any mills we haven't visited and which don't produce at a quality adequate for the U.S. market," Winston said.
Both Winston and Taylor agreed, however, that in order to grow, suppliers today must be willing to source from outside the U.S. The cost of labor in this country is prohibitive, said Taylor, and as a textile company, Southeastern has to find products from popularly priced sources; labor costs are a big part of the price. Today, Southeastern sources yarns, fabrics and finished goods, from low to high end, all over the globe.
"There will always be room for niche companies, producers of novelty yarns, in the U.S. But especially with the trade incentives being given out by the U.S. government, there just aren't many sewing firms left in this country. In fact, even converters are a dying breed; most of them are bringing in finished product now just to compete," Taylor said. "To grow in this global economy, textile companies have to go off shore for at least part of their business." Southeastern Yarns plans to continue grow, and although it may be treading lightly in Africa, it plans to make tracks all over the continent in search of new textile sources. "I see a pizza and I see that you've got to have a bigger piece of the pie. I have no idea where we'll go next for sourcing, but I do know that in order to grow, you have to go international," said Taylor. "In this industry, you either have to make dust or eat dust, and we plan to make dust."
Hickory, NC (USA) - West Africa is the Land of Opportunity for Southeastern Yarn Sales. The 30-year-old U.S. company partnered with a Malaysian textile producer who is purchasing a mill in Senegal and plans to start production on its 35,000 spindles in the second quarter of this year. The partners are in the process of refurbishing another mill in Mali, and are looking into other possibilities in Benin and Ghana.
"Africa is just beginning to bud. We're looking at everything. It's going to be a hotbed in textiles," said Ken Winston, chief operating officer, who has been sourcing textiles from Africa for about 11 years. "We think we've got a one-up there because we've already been there for so long." The company already sources mohair throws and blankets from a mill in South Africa, but West Africa is where both Winston and the company's current owner, Bill Taylor, see the greatest promise for their future growth.
"They've got a huge labor pool," added Bill Taylor, who with his father purchased Southeastern Yarn Sales in 1999 from Winston. "It's the last bastion of untapped business in the world. We're treading lightly there, but we believe it will be a great source of production and we'll be positioned on the front side of the curve." His plans include production of finished goods in Senegal.
Despite its promise, Africa has been a neglected area of the world, continued Taylor, which makes it a more difficult area to open. "Nothing is easy or quick in Africa," agreed Winston. "It's full of surprises."
Once the current project of upgrading and revitalizing the Marzoli textile equipment has been completed, equipment installed by the French and left behind in the mid-'80s, the mill will sell export quality yarn, explained Winston. In the future, the owners will restart the mill's 160 looms and resume sewing, dyeing and finishing. In the meantime, Southeastern Yarn Sales will assume the risk of merchandising all of the yarn produced at the Senegal mill.
But risky undertakings have characterized Southeastern Yarn Sales from its inception. Winston began the company - then called Winston Yarns - in 1970 as an agent for domestic mills. Then in 1982, when U.S. inflation and interest rates hit an all-time high of 22 percent and mills started selling directly to the converters, the going got tough. But having mounted the notoriously unpredictable bronco called Middle Man in the textile arena - not a career for the fainthearted - Winston chose to stay on. He formed Southeastern Yarn Sales, Inc., a global supplier of yarns.
In just the past two years, imports have boosted the growth of Southeastern Yarn Sales Inc. by sevenfold, said Winston. Today, the multi-million dollar company trades with countries from thirteen hours ahead to ten hours behind its North Carolina time, including Malaysia, Pakistan, Syria and other Middle Eastern countries, Spain, England, Mexico, Peru, Indonesia, Africa and South Africa.
The company began to source for the home furnishing field in late 1999 with home furnishing yarns spun in Malaysia, and already counts among its customers such well known names as Pillowtex, Springs, Fieldcrest Cannon and WestPoint Stevens.
"It's a wonderful mill near Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia, producing high quality yarns used for towels, bed sheets and apparel items," said Winston. "We're their largest customer."
Not satisfied with just sourcing yarn, the company started sourcing fabric and already sells a finished product made in Peru of alpaca and silk yarn that competes with the popular pashmina scarves and shawls in the U.S. marketplace. Now, after nearly two decades of experience with banks, ship lines, freight forwarders and agents around the world, Southeastern Yarn has proven its mettle and has an edge in global sourcing, he said.
In its early days, the company only imported fabrics that the U.S. industry was not producing, such as the higher counts of pima cotton and the flame retardant yarns used in airline seating. But in the 90's, in response to demand from U.S. retailers, Southeastern Yarns began to source mid to low-end yarns from Pakistan.
"These are what I call the 'rock-em-sock-em' yarns, the commodity yarns used to make goods sold in the big department stores such as Wal-mart, K-Mart, JC Penney and Target. The push for lower price points on yarns in the U.S. really came from these large retailers," said Winston. But the stores were so big that their volume could dictate this low price.
In fact, it was the success of these megastores that drove U.S. wholesale textile prices into the proverbial basement and sent wholesalers and converters abroad in search of the best deals. But finding those deals at a quality adequate for the U.S. market, Winston said, can be elusive. It requires travel, observation and worldly savvy.
"You have to know the culture of the countries in which you do business. You have to know their holidays and customs. And as much as the big U.S. retailers demand price, they have strict criteria for sourcing. It has always been our policy to not sell yarn from any mills we haven't visited and which don't produce at a quality adequate for the U.S. market," Winston said.
Both Winston and Taylor agreed, however, that in order to grow, suppliers today must be willing to source from outside the U.S. The cost of labor in this country is prohibitive, said Taylor, and as a textile company, Southeastern has to find products from popularly priced sources; labor costs are a big part of the price. Today, Southeastern sources yarns, fabrics and finished goods, from low to high end, all over the globe.
"There will always be room for niche companies, producers of novelty yarns, in the U.S. But especially with the trade incentives being given out by the U.S. government, there just aren't many sewing firms left in this country. In fact, even converters are a dying breed; most of them are bringing in finished product now just to compete," Taylor said. "To grow in this global economy, textile companies have to go off shore for at least part of their business." Southeastern Yarns plans to continue grow, and although it may be treading lightly in Africa, it plans to make tracks all over the continent in search of new textile sources. "I see a pizza and I see that you've got to have a bigger piece of the pie. I have no idea where we'll go next for sourcing, but I do know that in order to grow, you have to go international," said Taylor. "In this industry, you either have to make dust or eat dust, and we plan to make dust."
