How Kazakhstani clothing brand competes with global giants
The only Kazakh brand of ski clothing Zibroo (from the English zebra) began to "nibble green grass" in the local market only seven years agoThe Zibroo product line is impossible to “measure”. company employees can accept 60 work orders per day, that is, produce 60 different models (tens or hundreds of pieces) for 60 clientsThe Kaz SPO-N company, which owns Zibroo, really resembles a living organism that grows, expands and develops.
Where is Thinsulate located?
It all began almost 30 years ago, when a graduate of the Moscow Institute of Light Industry, fashion designer Elena Svechnikova arrived in Alma-Ata for assignment. “I worked for two years at the Symbat Republican Model House, where I studied the organization of production at a state-owned enterprise. Then she went to the knitwear factory “Almagul” as the chief designer, ”recalls the current director of Kaz SPO-N LLP.
After the production of knitwear became a read book for Elena, she moved to a joint Kazakh-Turkish enterprise for sewing leather jackets. “A new round in my development began there,” she says. - The CEO noticed my organizational skills and after a few months he made me the CEO. At 24, it was difficult to manage experienced employees who were many times older, it was hard when they went on strike. But the boss taught how to behave with the team, instilled in the basics of business. "
Then there was a "maternity" break, during which she was very bored with work. An unexpected decision was a meeting with an acquaintance who was heading for negotiations with a potential customer about sewing overalls and invited Elena with him. “I have never dealt with overalls before,” says the interlocutor, “and the customer immediately made high demands on raw materials and quality of tailoring, asked for samples and a product catalog. Its representatives asked: “Will you have insulation for Thinsulate? Is the reflective strip Scotchlight? " And we didn't even know what it was. Nevertheless, an acquaintance went for broke and promised: "We will provide everything we need." Since then, the carousel has spun, which is still spinning. "
The partners had to urgently look for a supplier who would sell those same unknown materials. Cut and sew patterns, create a catalog. A week later, the first contract was signed - with a foreign oil company. So in 1996, Kaz SPO LLP (“Kazakhstan modern professional clothing”) appeared.“I cut myself at home, and homeworkers sewed overalls. But soon we realized that it was so difficult to control quality, and we rented a plot and three cars from a hat factory. They worked for a year without heating, the partner came at six in the morning and turned on the "gun", which heated the room, where the seamstresses came at eight in the morning. We sat in felt boots and gloves. In the spring we moved to another, basement room, and it was a holiday for us, because it was warm there. When today one of the beginning entrepreneurs is dissatisfied with something, I want to send them to work in those days, ”smiles Svechnikova.The partners have a dream - to buy a premise. “We did not take loans on principle, we collected everything that we earned, and finally in 2000 we bought two buildings, more precisely, two frames of emergency buildings. We built a production site, brought communications. This was our first significant achievement, ”the entrepreneur believes.However, after three years, the partners broke up due to differences in views. For example, Elena believed that it was necessary to buy new, "sophisticated" sewing equipment, while a colleague suggested spending money differently. One way or another, she remembers warmly about the seven years spent side by side.
Steep turns
In 2003, Svechnikova decided to buy for her new company (then Kaz SPO got the N - new postfix) half a hectare of land in Almaty, below Raimbek Avenue, where there was also a sewing enterprise. For this, she and her husband sold the apartment and took out a loan for the first time. Elena does not remember how much they invested then, but for them it was serious money. However, six months later, earning money by sewing workwear, the company was able to return the loan.
“In two or three years, the second floor was completed, now we are doing the third. In 2015, two-level warm warehouses were equipped and a new building was erected, on the second floor of which we are opening a brand store with an area of more than 100 "squares". In total, we have 5 thousand square meters. m of production space. The company employs 160 people, of whom 100 are seamstresses, the rest are designers, marketers, and so on, ”says the businesswoman.
During the period of "youthful throwing" "Kaz SPO-N" took any orders - sewn for bars, casinos, medical companies. Then came the understanding that it is more profitable to specialize in large contracts, where individual solutions are needed. “We have almost no Almaty clients, 90% are foreign companies that understand the price-quality ratio,” Svechnikova notes. - We supply products, for example, for JSC Intergas Central Asia, TCO, we participate in a defense order, we made down jackets for students of Nazarbayev Intellectual Schools.
Elena Svechnikova - founder and director of Zibroo
Elena calls her competitors the companies that import workwear to Kazakhstan that meets European quality standards. “However, we approach solving problems individually:“ Do you need a tractor or twisted zipper? Embroidery? Let's do it! " We take fabrics not at the bazaar, but only at proven factories, because we know the result of exploitation. We have large stocks, so we can always finish an order. We give a lifetime warranty for our products. Because if we use zippers, then only Japanese YKK, whose products never break. If there should be 10 bartacks on the pocket, then we will make them, and it will not fall off. Yes, this has brought the company into a high price segment, but our clients are ready to pay for quality, ”the interlocutor says.
But the production of workwear has a serious problem: irregularities, uneven capacity utilization, because today you won the tender, and tomorrow you lost; in the fall - the peak of orders, and in January-March there are none at all. Under such conditions, it is difficult to maintain a team of highly qualified specialists. “I began to think about what to do additionally in order to have a constant even load,” says Elena. - The idea to produce ski clothing appeared eight years ago, after a trip to Germany to the ISPO sporting goods, clothing and footwear exhibition. This is a huge platform where manufacturers of raw materials and finished products from all over the world are represented. In Kazakhstan I went shopping and asked: "If we manufacture sportswear of the European level, will you sell it?" Everyone laughed at me: "You can never do this." But I didn't think so, and I chose the most difficult direction - ski clothes. "
If adults who go in for skiing buy a certain brand to which they are emotionally attached, then they treat children's clothes differently. Comfort, functionality and striking design come to the fore. That is why Svechnikova decided to start with the production of children's ski clothing. In addition, I wanted to please two granddaughters who are skiing.“There were many variants of brand names. One day, the youngest daughter offered to change zebra to zibroo. I liked the idea, and we released the first collection that lived up to the name - cheerful, bright. Later, for the adult collection, our designers changed the colors to calmer ones, ”says the entrepreneur.
The process of making a "mountain ski" is financially intensive. So, the minimum volume that can be bought from the world's fabric manufacturers (Zibroo buys raw materials in Taiwan, China, Turkey, rarely in Korea) is 800 meters. However, the game is worth the candle: children's clothing from a domestic manufacturer went with a bang during the season. However, in the summer the demand "left", but the rent remained, so Zibroo curtailed sales in retail outlets. But they found out about the company, and the LLP began to receive applications for tailoring corporate sportswear - first for small private clubs, then for reputable companies such as the Russian Gazprom.“In August 2010, the organizers of the VII Asian Winter Games (held in Kazakhstan at the beginning of 2011. - F) discovered that they had“ no clothes ”for volunteers, journalists, technical staff, and turned to us. We closed the order in two weeks. After that, people realized that there is a company in Almaty that sews sportswear with high quality and on time, ”the founder of the brand, worriedly recalls the turning point in the history of Zibroo.After that, they participated in a competition to design clothes for athletes who went to the Sochi Olympics in 2014. “We took second place. But when the winner of the competition was asked to send the order, he asked: “Where? I don't have an atelier, ”then they came to us with sketches. Later, the commission proposed to create their own sketches, and work began on a completely different level, ”says Elena.
Zibroo is going to produce a criticized version of the suit for the Olympic team. The company is confident that the form will become a hit of sales.She decided not only to draw a yellow sun against the blue sky, but to take as a basis the rock paintings found in Kazakhstan. She invited Academician of the Academy of Arts of the Republic of Crimea Altynbekov and UNESCO expert in Central Asia Viktor Novozhenov to cooperate, with whom she developed the design of Olympic clothing. “We went through a long approval process: some liked what we came up with, some didn't. But the raw materials were ordered before the signing of the final version, otherwise, if they waited, they would not have had time, - Svechnikova admits. - As a result, our clothes entered the top four outfits among the countries that were presented in Sochi. Kazakhstani athletes said that their uniforms aroused interest in the Olympic Village, colleagues even suggested changing their jackets."Then there were orders for tailoring for our Paralympians, for the Mobil Ex Racing Team, which won the Africa Eco Race 2016 rally (the company emphasizes that the riders came to victory in Zibroo clothes), for clothes and other products with the Universiade symbols -2017, etc. “In the competition for the creation of sports uniforms for the Summer Olympic Games in Brazil, which will be held in August this year, we had serious competitors - Mizuno, Nike, Adidas. These are the leaders of the world market, but we, unlike them, can bring local flavor to the design without losing in quality, ”says Elena.She does not want to comment on the scandal that erupted around the "Brazilian"uniform of the Kazakhstan national team (some criticized the equipment presented in Astana on February 18, 2016). Only states that an unapproved version of the tracksuit will be produced for sale in stores: “This is a very good model! She will become a hit! " (Later it became known that after making adjustments to the samples, the commission approved the uniform for the national team of Kazakhstan at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro).
Anti-crisis directions
During the crisis, "Kaz SPO-N" faced with the fact that customers began to sharply cut budgets and revise the already signed contracts. Large companies that ordered overalls at a high cost - 80–120 thousand tenge per set, switched to the economy option - 15–25 thousand tenge. A distributor company that sold cross-country ski clothing in 16 Russian regions has suspended cooperation. If in the last seven years "Kaz SPO-N" has been growing by 30% annually and in 2015 its turnover amounted to $ 5 million, then the director does not undertake to make forecasts for 2016.“One of the components of success is the automation of the process, when we do not depend on the professionalism of the performers,” Svechnikova shares her thoughts. - We do not skimp on equipment that is needed to fulfill bottlenecks. We have machines for making pockets from A.S.S., for gluing seams from Pfaff (both brands from Germany), for flat seams from Juki (Japan). Our modeling and design department uses the program of automated design of clothes Grafis, the system of automated layouts of patterns Avtonester (both from Germany), cutting complex Gerber (USA) ”.
Such a technical base allows even now to develop new directions. The company increased its capacity by opening three new sections for 90 seats - for the production of down products, fulfillment of individual orders and "extras".
The down-sewing shop is capable of producing 100–150 pieces of products per shift.Down jackets from Kaz SPO-N can compete with other brands in quality (80–85% down) and in price (from 30–40 thousand tenge). There is already a demand for them in Russia, where the order for 8 thousand units came from. For the domestic market, the company is preparing four lines of jackets designed for different climatic conditions.
In addition, the enterprise begins to work in the B2C sector - to sew sportswear not to order, but for sale through distributors and in its own network of stores, which Kaz SPO-N plans to launch in the near future.“Finally, we are opening an atelier for tailoring individual design products,” the businesswoman rejoices. - Previously, people came to us and asked, we had to answer: "No, we have no time to do this." But I thought: since there is a need, we must do it."Svechnikova does not undertake to calculate how many units of production per shift will be produced by the enterprise with "pumped up muscles". He says that before the commissioning of new capacities, during the full load period, 100-160 winter sets were issued per shift, three times as many summer sets. The main thing today is the availability of demand. There will be demand - there will be "zebras".
Перевод статьи: Жарасова Сымбат
Ичточник:https://m.forbes.kz/process/businessmen/gornaya_zebra_1
Where is Thinsulate located?
It all began almost 30 years ago, when a graduate of the Moscow Institute of Light Industry, fashion designer Elena Svechnikova arrived in Alma-Ata for assignment. “I worked for two years at the Symbat Republican Model House, where I studied the organization of production at a state-owned enterprise. Then she went to the knitwear factory “Almagul” as the chief designer, ”recalls the current director of Kaz SPO-N LLP.
After the production of knitwear became a read book for Elena, she moved to a joint Kazakh-Turkish enterprise for sewing leather jackets. “A new round in my development began there,” she says. - The CEO noticed my organizational skills and after a few months he made me the CEO. At 24, it was difficult to manage experienced employees who were many times older, it was hard when they went on strike. But the boss taught how to behave with the team, instilled in the basics of business. "
Then there was a "maternity" break, during which she was very bored with work. An unexpected decision was a meeting with an acquaintance who was heading for negotiations with a potential customer about sewing overalls and invited Elena with him. “I have never dealt with overalls before,” says the interlocutor, “and the customer immediately made high demands on raw materials and quality of tailoring, asked for samples and a product catalog. Its representatives asked: “Will you have insulation for Thinsulate? Is the reflective strip Scotchlight? " And we didn't even know what it was. Nevertheless, an acquaintance went for broke and promised: "We will provide everything we need." Since then, the carousel has spun, which is still spinning. "
The partners had to urgently look for a supplier who would sell those same unknown materials. Cut and sew patterns, create a catalog. A week later, the first contract was signed - with a foreign oil company. So in 1996, Kaz SPO LLP (“Kazakhstan modern professional clothing”) appeared.“I cut myself at home, and homeworkers sewed overalls. But soon we realized that it was so difficult to control quality, and we rented a plot and three cars from a hat factory. They worked for a year without heating, the partner came at six in the morning and turned on the "gun", which heated the room, where the seamstresses came at eight in the morning. We sat in felt boots and gloves. In the spring we moved to another, basement room, and it was a holiday for us, because it was warm there. When today one of the beginning entrepreneurs is dissatisfied with something, I want to send them to work in those days, ”smiles Svechnikova.The partners have a dream - to buy a premise. “We did not take loans on principle, we collected everything that we earned, and finally in 2000 we bought two buildings, more precisely, two frames of emergency buildings. We built a production site, brought communications. This was our first significant achievement, ”the entrepreneur believes.However, after three years, the partners broke up due to differences in views. For example, Elena believed that it was necessary to buy new, "sophisticated" sewing equipment, while a colleague suggested spending money differently. One way or another, she remembers warmly about the seven years spent side by side.
Steep turns
In 2003, Svechnikova decided to buy for her new company (then Kaz SPO got the N - new postfix) half a hectare of land in Almaty, below Raimbek Avenue, where there was also a sewing enterprise. For this, she and her husband sold the apartment and took out a loan for the first time. Elena does not remember how much they invested then, but for them it was serious money. However, six months later, earning money by sewing workwear, the company was able to return the loan.
“In two or three years, the second floor was completed, now we are doing the third. In 2015, two-level warm warehouses were equipped and a new building was erected, on the second floor of which we are opening a brand store with an area of more than 100 "squares". In total, we have 5 thousand square meters. m of production space. The company employs 160 people, of whom 100 are seamstresses, the rest are designers, marketers, and so on, ”says the businesswoman.
During the period of "youthful throwing" "Kaz SPO-N" took any orders - sewn for bars, casinos, medical companies. Then came the understanding that it is more profitable to specialize in large contracts, where individual solutions are needed. “We have almost no Almaty clients, 90% are foreign companies that understand the price-quality ratio,” Svechnikova notes. - We supply products, for example, for JSC Intergas Central Asia, TCO, we participate in a defense order, we made down jackets for students of Nazarbayev Intellectual Schools.
Elena Svechnikova - founder and director of Zibroo
Elena calls her competitors the companies that import workwear to Kazakhstan that meets European quality standards. “However, we approach solving problems individually:“ Do you need a tractor or twisted zipper? Embroidery? Let's do it! " We take fabrics not at the bazaar, but only at proven factories, because we know the result of exploitation. We have large stocks, so we can always finish an order. We give a lifetime warranty for our products. Because if we use zippers, then only Japanese YKK, whose products never break. If there should be 10 bartacks on the pocket, then we will make them, and it will not fall off. Yes, this has brought the company into a high price segment, but our clients are ready to pay for quality, ”the interlocutor says.
But the production of workwear has a serious problem: irregularities, uneven capacity utilization, because today you won the tender, and tomorrow you lost; in the fall - the peak of orders, and in January-March there are none at all. Under such conditions, it is difficult to maintain a team of highly qualified specialists. “I began to think about what to do additionally in order to have a constant even load,” says Elena. - The idea to produce ski clothing appeared eight years ago, after a trip to Germany to the ISPO sporting goods, clothing and footwear exhibition. This is a huge platform where manufacturers of raw materials and finished products from all over the world are represented. In Kazakhstan I went shopping and asked: "If we manufacture sportswear of the European level, will you sell it?" Everyone laughed at me: "You can never do this." But I didn't think so, and I chose the most difficult direction - ski clothes. "
If adults who go in for skiing buy a certain brand to which they are emotionally attached, then they treat children's clothes differently. Comfort, functionality and striking design come to the fore. That is why Svechnikova decided to start with the production of children's ski clothing. In addition, I wanted to please two granddaughters who are skiing.“There were many variants of brand names. One day, the youngest daughter offered to change zebra to zibroo. I liked the idea, and we released the first collection that lived up to the name - cheerful, bright. Later, for the adult collection, our designers changed the colors to calmer ones, ”says the entrepreneur.
The process of making a "mountain ski" is financially intensive. So, the minimum volume that can be bought from the world's fabric manufacturers (Zibroo buys raw materials in Taiwan, China, Turkey, rarely in Korea) is 800 meters. However, the game is worth the candle: children's clothing from a domestic manufacturer went with a bang during the season. However, in the summer the demand "left", but the rent remained, so Zibroo curtailed sales in retail outlets. But they found out about the company, and the LLP began to receive applications for tailoring corporate sportswear - first for small private clubs, then for reputable companies such as the Russian Gazprom.“In August 2010, the organizers of the VII Asian Winter Games (held in Kazakhstan at the beginning of 2011. - F) discovered that they had“ no clothes ”for volunteers, journalists, technical staff, and turned to us. We closed the order in two weeks. After that, people realized that there is a company in Almaty that sews sportswear with high quality and on time, ”the founder of the brand, worriedly recalls the turning point in the history of Zibroo.After that, they participated in a competition to design clothes for athletes who went to the Sochi Olympics in 2014. “We took second place. But when the winner of the competition was asked to send the order, he asked: “Where? I don't have an atelier, ”then they came to us with sketches. Later, the commission proposed to create their own sketches, and work began on a completely different level, ”says Elena.
Zibroo is going to produce a criticized version of the suit for the Olympic team. The company is confident that the form will become a hit of sales.She decided not only to draw a yellow sun against the blue sky, but to take as a basis the rock paintings found in Kazakhstan. She invited Academician of the Academy of Arts of the Republic of Crimea Altynbekov and UNESCO expert in Central Asia Viktor Novozhenov to cooperate, with whom she developed the design of Olympic clothing. “We went through a long approval process: some liked what we came up with, some didn't. But the raw materials were ordered before the signing of the final version, otherwise, if they waited, they would not have had time, - Svechnikova admits. - As a result, our clothes entered the top four outfits among the countries that were presented in Sochi. Kazakhstani athletes said that their uniforms aroused interest in the Olympic Village, colleagues even suggested changing their jackets."Then there were orders for tailoring for our Paralympians, for the Mobil Ex Racing Team, which won the Africa Eco Race 2016 rally (the company emphasizes that the riders came to victory in Zibroo clothes), for clothes and other products with the Universiade symbols -2017, etc. “In the competition for the creation of sports uniforms for the Summer Olympic Games in Brazil, which will be held in August this year, we had serious competitors - Mizuno, Nike, Adidas. These are the leaders of the world market, but we, unlike them, can bring local flavor to the design without losing in quality, ”says Elena.She does not want to comment on the scandal that erupted around the "Brazilian"uniform of the Kazakhstan national team (some criticized the equipment presented in Astana on February 18, 2016). Only states that an unapproved version of the tracksuit will be produced for sale in stores: “This is a very good model! She will become a hit! " (Later it became known that after making adjustments to the samples, the commission approved the uniform for the national team of Kazakhstan at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro).
Anti-crisis directions
During the crisis, "Kaz SPO-N" faced with the fact that customers began to sharply cut budgets and revise the already signed contracts. Large companies that ordered overalls at a high cost - 80–120 thousand tenge per set, switched to the economy option - 15–25 thousand tenge. A distributor company that sold cross-country ski clothing in 16 Russian regions has suspended cooperation. If in the last seven years "Kaz SPO-N" has been growing by 30% annually and in 2015 its turnover amounted to $ 5 million, then the director does not undertake to make forecasts for 2016.“One of the components of success is the automation of the process, when we do not depend on the professionalism of the performers,” Svechnikova shares her thoughts. - We do not skimp on equipment that is needed to fulfill bottlenecks. We have machines for making pockets from A.S.S., for gluing seams from Pfaff (both brands from Germany), for flat seams from Juki (Japan). Our modeling and design department uses the program of automated design of clothes Grafis, the system of automated layouts of patterns Avtonester (both from Germany), cutting complex Gerber (USA) ”.
Such a technical base allows even now to develop new directions. The company increased its capacity by opening three new sections for 90 seats - for the production of down products, fulfillment of individual orders and "extras".
The down-sewing shop is capable of producing 100–150 pieces of products per shift.Down jackets from Kaz SPO-N can compete with other brands in quality (80–85% down) and in price (from 30–40 thousand tenge). There is already a demand for them in Russia, where the order for 8 thousand units came from. For the domestic market, the company is preparing four lines of jackets designed for different climatic conditions.
In addition, the enterprise begins to work in the B2C sector - to sew sportswear not to order, but for sale through distributors and in its own network of stores, which Kaz SPO-N plans to launch in the near future.“Finally, we are opening an atelier for tailoring individual design products,” the businesswoman rejoices. - Previously, people came to us and asked, we had to answer: "No, we have no time to do this." But I thought: since there is a need, we must do it."Svechnikova does not undertake to calculate how many units of production per shift will be produced by the enterprise with "pumped up muscles". He says that before the commissioning of new capacities, during the full load period, 100-160 winter sets were issued per shift, three times as many summer sets. The main thing today is the availability of demand. There will be demand - there will be "zebras".
Перевод статьи: Жарасова Сымбат
Ичточник:https://m.forbes.kz/process/businessmen/gornaya_zebra_1