Centro Tex is a prominent Bangladesh-based apparel manufacturing and sourcing company, founded in 2006. Over the years, it has grown to become a significant player in the textile industry, known for its commitment to high-quality production and customer satisfaction. The company specializes in providing design and development, manufacturing, sourcing, and supply chain solutions for fashion and commodity apparel. Centro Tex started its journey with a small team but has since expanded, now employing around 250 people. Its mission revolves around creating personalized, sustainable, and creative designs, with a focus on precision and timely delivery. The company is dedicated to maintaining high standards of integrity, professionalism, and respect within its operations. Centro Tex also embraces sustainability practices, seeking to minimize its environmental footprint while maximizing societal impact.
In addition to its core apparel business, Centro Tex has diversified by establishing Centro Footwear Ltd. as a subsidiary and expanding its product offerings. The company has also fostered a positive work culture, recognizing that the success of its operations is deeply tied to the well-being of its employees. With its consistent focus on design excellence and operational efficiency, Centro Tex aims to remain a key player in the global apparel manufacturing sector. Recently Jaidur Rahman, AGM, Centro Tex conversed with textile focus and delivered his insightful thoughts about merchandising and RMG sector. The conversation is given below for our respective readers.
Textile Focus: Could you please share your professional journey?
Jaidur Rahman: My professional journey started with ACI Logistics Ltd. in Supply Chain. I worked 2.5 years there and during that short period, I had the opportunity to work with different functions of the supply chain, such as Demand & Supply Planning, Warehouse Management and Distribution Systems.
After that, I joined Decathlon and that was the start of my Merchandising journey. I worked for around 12 years with Decathlon and was lucky to experience the sourcing & merchandising of different products like Hard Goods, Bikes, Footwear, Textiles & Apparel with different roles. I was leading the NATURAL KNIT business unit in my last role in Decathlon and was responsible for managing the Product Development, Production, Quality & Sustainability part along with Sourcing & Merchandising. It’s been 2 years I have been working with Centro Tex Ltd. I have started with merchandising and presently I am focusing on Process development. Very happy to work with the fantastic people here.
Textile Focus: Merchandising is a valuable word now, could you please share with us the contribution of the Merchandising dept in the BD RMG Sector?
Jaidur Rahman: I would prefer not to credit any specific department for the success story of our RMG industry. It’s collective intelligence and every department has played a different but very important role in contributing to our RMG industry.
At the same time, there should be a leader in every teamwork and the Merchandising department is playing this leadership role for our RMG industry. Merchandising is bringing the products from the design showroom to the retail sales floor and then to the hands of the consumer. It drives the process of building & managing the relationship with buyers, sourcing the materials and coordinating among different departments to produce & ship the right quality products on time. The merchandise department’s role has been instrumental to the growth of our RMG industry. It’s time to pay more attention to product diversification, time-to-market reduction & agile supply solution to offer competitive TeCO as a team with the leadership of the merchandising Department to continue the success story of our RMG industry.
Textile Focus: What are the Challenges you are facing in buying house Merchandising?
Jaidur Rahman: The challenges are quite different for the Merchandising of the Retailer’s Liaison Office, Buying House & Manufacturers. The level of responsibility is wider, and the complexity of the context is higher with buying house Merchandising. We need to manage the relationship with a significant number of buyers & manufacturers in buying house merchandising. Each of the buyers has specific expectations/standards/ way of working. Each of the manufactures also has a unique profile with different strategic priorities & business models. It is challenging to bring the buyer & manufacturer to the same page to move forward in the same direction.
It’s very rare to have long-term/mid-term projections from the buyers in buying house Merchandising. So, capacity & raw materials booking in advance isn’t feasible always. That creates the challenge of getting the capacity & raw materials when needed and reduces the efficiency of the E2E supply chain. We need to play the roles both of the Supplier and Buyer in buying house Merchandising. This shifting of roles according to the context and finding the right fit is a challenging balance to make. Merchandising should drive for an environment where every stakeholder will work together as a partner, which is ideal but not easy to get in practice.
Textile Focus: Most textile students focus on merchandise. Could you please share us the career opportunities and your suggestions?
Jaidur Rahman: Merchandising is a rewarding career for someone who loves to take challenges & overcome them. As the driver of the business, the Merchandiser got a holistic view of the business process which enables the understanding of other department’s operations. It gives scope for comprehensive learning and career development in Merchandising as well as other departments. In the perspective of Bangladesh, Merchandising is very promising career. Of course, it depends on who we are as a profile? But a career in Merchandising provides a better platform to learn, contribute & grow vertically as well as horizontally.
Along with technical skill sets; communication, problem solving, negotiation & analytical skills are important for success in Merchandising. I would emphasize the young talents to consider your passion and your core strength in addition to the opportunities to choose the right career. If you find to do what you love, there is no doubt you will achieve something incredible.
Textile Focus: As a successful Merchandiser, how will you contribute more in the RMG Sector?
Jaidur Rahman: I won’t go in this direction to evaluate if I am successful or not because the definition of success is very relative & personalized, I believe. But I am happy with the diverse learning, contribution & growth opportunities in the career journey. One of the best ways to contribute to our RMG industry is to play our respective roles with due diligence. This will always be my focus connecting my past experience along with my team to contribute to our RMG industry. I always take pleasure in connecting with people, sharing my experience and learning from that. I will continue these initiatives in any form of competency development at individual/ institutional/ organizations level with the intention to do something impactful for the community.
