Fabulous Fabrics

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Byline:OSCAR CHUNG /Publication Date:03/01/2013

Three textile enterprises exemplify the sector’s effort to stand out through innovation.

A visit to the showroom of Singtex Industrial Co. would not be complete without experiencing its coffee. It is not the drink that impresses, however. Instead, this advice refers to a special line of fabrics made from the company’s S.Café yarn, which is infused with microscopic particles of coffee. The S.Café brand “is based on the raw material inside the clothing, just like Intel chips inside computers,” says Chris Chiang (江伯威), manager of Singtex’s Branding and Yarn Department.

The coffee grounds used in S.Café yarn are currently sourced from 30-odd convenience stores near Singtex’s headquarters inNewTaipeiCity, northernTaiwan, where workers process the spent foodstuff. “We help the stores dispose of the dregs which are just waste in their eyes. They’re happy to give the raw materials to us for free,” Chiang notes.

Established in 1989, Singtex began to focus on high-value waterproof fabrics in the mid-1990s. It was a time when most local businesses in the sector had departed to mainlandChinato take advantage of that country’s cheap land and labor followingTaiwan’s decision to ease restrictions on the ability of Taiwanese-owned enterprises to invest there in 1992. Singtex’s decision was a smart one because companies remaining inTaiwanhad to find ways to stay competitive against the low-cost, mass-produced goods that were being churned out in mainlandChina. “Power looms were as good as banknote printing machines in Taiwan 30 years ago,” Justin Huang (黃偉基), secretary-general of the Taiwan Textile Federation (TTF), says of the boom for Taiwan’s textiles during the 1980s. At the time,Japan,South KoreaandTaiwanwere three major global powers in textiles, withJapanproviding medium-to-high-end fabrics and the other two churning out medium-to-low-end products. As mainlandChinaand Southeast Asia rose rapidly in the field throughout the 1980s, however,Taiwan’s fabric mills felt the pressure to change and most, like Singtex, moved to high-tech production in order to stay ahead.

Power of Coffee
The ability to fuse odor-absorbing coffee grounds with yarn has been the most important breakthrough made by Singtex in recent years. The idea occurred to Jason Chen (陳國欽), the founder of the company, about eight years ago, and in the past three years the enterprise has invested between 2 and 3 percent of its annual revenue to enhance the performance of its unique odor-absorbing fiber. Over time, the firm’s researchers have been able to eliminate the smell and color of coffee from the final product. They have also improved the material’s performance by extracting more of the naturally occurring oil from the coffee grounds, which in turn enhances the effectiveness of the numerous tiny holes in the dregs that absorb odors. The fabric is also easy to dry since the added matter creates more surface area, which means greater contact with the air. The S.Café production process is one of 34 patents owned by Singtex, with the company registering it inTaiwanand mainlandChinaand awaiting approval in Europe and theUnited States.

In line with its moves toward green manufacturing, Singtex spent NT$250 million (US$7.9 million) on the construction of a dyeing and finishing plant that helped the company win Bluesign certification in 2008. A strict set of standards for environmentally friendly fabric-making, the Bluesign system was created in 2000 by representatives from European academia, consumer organizations and industry. Since Formosa Taffeta Co. gained certification in 2001, some 120 enterprises in Taiwan’s textiles sector have been granted the right to use the Bluesign mark.

Singtex’s efforts to innovate and become greener have paid off by enabling the company to win orders from international sportswear and outdoor clothing brandsPatagoniaand The North Face as well as others that put a high premium on fabrics that are both green and high-performance. According to Chiang, 30 percent of the NT$1.2 billion (US$40 million) in revenue created by the company in 2012 came from S.Café yarn, on which the company’s branding effort is focused.

Meanwhile, BeBe Cotton Knitting Co., a relatively small enterprise with earnings of around NT$80 million (US$2.67 million) in 2012, is also endeavoring to create a niche in the green market by developing natural dyes from plant extracts. “I’d polluted the earth too much,” BeBe founder and managing director Harch Hong (洪清峰) says of the chemical dyes used in the fabrics sold by his company. “Now it’s time to repent and make up for the harm I did to the environment.” Part ofTaiwan’s textiles sector for 38 years, BeBe began to invest in research on natural dyes in2008 inhopes of developing fabrics that are healthier for both the environment and the human body. “Why not nip pollution in the bud instead of spending money building facilities for treating wastewater?” Hong asks.

BeBe has since spent more than NT$40 million (US$1.4 million) on related research, NT$9 million (US$310,000) of which has come from subsidies granted by the Ministry of Economic Affairs. In August 2012, the company started to produce large quantities of plant-based dyes at its dyeing mill in Taoyuan, northern Taiwan. “Plant dyeing actually has a long history throughout the world as well as in Taiwan—the indigo dyeing for which Sanxia [a suburban neighborhood in New Taipei City] is famous being one major example here. But I’m the pioneer in industrializing production,” Hong says. In addition, the company purchases natural plant dyes from abroad in order to offer a wider range of colors.

Following environmentally friendly practices is becoming a trend in the local textile sector, and without a doubt DA.AI Technology Co. is one of the leaders in this respect. An affiliate of the Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu Chi Foundation, a nonprofit religious organization known for its charity work around the world, DA.AI was founded by five Taiwanese entrepreneurs in December 2008 with the aim of developing environmentally friendly products. It does so by recycling used PET bottles into fabrics, and is now a major player among eco-friendly textile manufacturers inTaiwan.

By the end of 2012, DA.AI, which means “great love,” had recycled more than 250 million used PET bottles to produce fabric. It takes around 130,000 liters of oil to produce that many bottles, according to DA.AI, a resource that would otherwise have gone to waste if the bottles were simply discarded after their first use.

James Lee (李鼎銘), one of the company’s founders, says DA.AI has moved one step further by introducing the cradle-to-cradle (C2C) concept to its production line. Now a world trend, C2Crefers to designing products that are easily recycled at the end of their life. In 2010, the Environmental Protection Encouragement Agency, a consultancy company based in Germany, set up a branch in Taiwan and helped form an alliance of C2C-conscious organizations including the Cabinet-level Environmental Protection Administration and various businesses. DA.AI is one of eight companies inTaiwan’s textile sector that takes part in the group.

In 2012, DA.AI won C2Csilver-level certification from the Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute, a nongovernmental organization based in theUnited States. The Taiwanese firm received the accreditation for its pollution-free reuse of materials as its products are made only from recycled bottles and are dyed without additional chemicals or water. DA.AI was Asia’s first enterprise that uses recycled PET bottles as a raw material to win accreditation from theUSinstitute. The next goal for DA.AI is to improve its rating in the group’s five-tier system by ensuring its own products are easy to recycle.

76,000 Volunteers
Despite DA.AI’s effort to make the most of waste materials, however, Lee emphasizes that the company is noteworthy mainly because of the way in which it operates. While the firm is only a medium-sized venture in terms of revenue among local textile manufacturers, DA.AI relies on about 76,000 volunteers who prepare the waste bottles for reuse at some 5,400 stations around the island that are managed by the Tzu Chi Foundation. “When you wear clothing bearing the DA.AI brand, you feel the selfless love of the many Taiwanese volunteers. That’s something missing in other enterprises,” Lee says. In addition, the some 50 businesses involved in turning the bottles into finished clothing products offer their services at a discount. “They contribute their expertise to partner with DA.AI because they identify with Tzu Chi and its charity work,” Lee adds. In 2012 the company earned revenue of NT$300 million (US$10 million), with its net profit donated to the Tzu Chi Foundation. In 2011, within just three years of its formation, DA.AI won the top corporate social responsibility award in the category of public interest promotion from Global Views Monthly, a well-known Chinese-language business magazine inTaiwan.

To build closer links with its customers, DA.AI attaches quick response codes to its clothing to enable consumers to access a short video featuring several of the volunteers who handle the used bottles. Clothing items are also tagged with information about where and when the bottles were recycled. This is a significant step in building consumer trust, as some companies manufacture bottles solely in order to “recycle” them into fabric, TTF’s Huang says. In this way, companies are able to use new plastic, which presents fewer problems during production, but retain the appearance of making eco-friendly products.

Thanks to DA.AI and the growing number of local enterprises devoted to producing fabrics made from recycled bottles, such fabrics have improved in performance and are becoming better known worldwide. At the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, for example, of the 32 national soccer teams playing in one of the world’s most important sporting events, the nine teams sponsored by Nike Inc. wore uniforms made in Taiwan from recycled PET bottles processed by Far Eastern New Century Corp., a major local fabric maker.

In 2012, DA.AI hosted 309 presentations and exhibitions throughoutTaiwanand abroad promoting its eco-friendly goods in order to expand their appeal among the general public, as Lee acknowledges that currently most of the company’s products are bought by Tzu Chi followers. The company also invited local fashion designers to work with its in-house design team to produce a line of clothing. The designs were exhibited at the Taipei IN Style fashion show organized by TTF in mid-October that year, and the company plans to put some of the styles into production.

Colors of Nature
BeBe Cotton hopes the growing environmental consciousness among consumers will boost sales of its products. According to Hong, fabrics colored with plant dyes are about 30 percent more expensive than those dyed by conventional methods. In addition, it is easier for such fabrics to fade after long exposure to sunlight, which explains why they are mostly used for underwear and indoor clothing. The company is banking on consumers’ concern about the environment outweighing such considerations. For now, naturally dyed fabrics account for more than 10 percent of the company’s income, but Hong expects sales to grow, adding that several of the company’s clients, after making exploratory initial purchases, have already placed second orders.

Looking to the future, Singtex is poised to step up its S.Café branding effort while expanding applications of the yarn. Currently, its odor-resistant fabric is used by about 60 brands at home and abroad to make a range of products from handbags, shoe insoles and lingerie to clothing for cyclists. “MainlandChinais catching up at a faster pace than you’d imagine,” Chiang says of the improved quality and performance of fabrics manufactured there, explaining that the need to remain competitive is another reason for building the S.Café brand. The company hopes to become more visible by also marketing coffee oil, the major by-product of the yarn-making process, as an additive for shampoo, soap and other cosmetics products.

TTF’s Huang says Taiwan was capable of making only single-function fabrics about six years ago, but today all of the large players in the sector can produce multi-functional textiles that are simultaneously waterproof, ultrathin and have a high ultraviolet protection factor, for example. Moreover, although enterprises in mainlandChinaare followingTaiwanclosely, Huang notes that the defect rate for mainland Chinese multi-functional fabrics is relatively high. Still, to stay competitive, he saysTaiwan’s fabric mills have tried to add even more value to their products by offering design services for their clients, a trend that has become especially evident since 2008. “Function plus fashion—that’s the catchphrase in the sector today,” says Huang, noting that nearly all local fabric makers now employ in-house fashion designers.

“There’re so many fabric makers across the world. How can you attract serious attention from buyers in such a competitive environment?” he asks. Known for their ability to adapt to world trends, Taiwanese businesses certainly have the answer.

COPIED FROM Taiwan Review issue March 2013 http://taiwanreview.nat.gov.tw/ct.asp?xItem=201775&CtNode=1446

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