Turag goes vertical and selects Monforts stenter for new mill

A newly established textile mill in Dhaka has selected a Monforts Montex stenter as a key element in its vertical knitted production process.

The decision by Bangladesh’s Turag Garments & Hosiery Mills Ltd. to convert itself from a small garments producer into a full-scale textiles mill has proved successful following its transition in June 2009, with the company today supplying 100 per cent of its output to export markets.

A key element in the fitting out of the mill, which is located on the outskirts of Dhaka in the South Panishail district, was the installation of a Monforts Montex JV stenter supplied by the Monforts representative, Bengal Technological Corporation Ltd.

With the stenter installed, Turag is now undertaking knitting, dyeing, sewing, printing, finishing and garment manufacture. “We have used top quality machinery from Europe for all the processes, and we needed the Monforts stenter for the flexibility it gives us in fabrics handling,” says Mr. D.S. Hemantha, General Manager for textiles production, who commissioned the mill. “The stenter needs to handle all natural materials, together with chemically treated fabrics and materials such as 100% polyester, and we also need particularly high-temperature finishing. All this of course has to be of the best quality, because our entire business is for export, mainly to Europe.”

Turag was already an established name in the export markets, having been founded in 1998, although it had remained a small-scale garment manufacturer until the decision to expand into textiles production. Now occupying an area of 39,623 m² (426,500 ft²), the factory employs a workforce of 1,900.

Turag is best known for producing casual and sportswear with a variety of patterns and sizes of knit fabrics which are finished with different functions, such as wicking, moisture management, anti-bacterial, and mosquito-proof.

The company works with special yarns such as polyester, micro-polyester, modal, bamboo cotton, Polyamide Tactel, Coolmax and Suplex.

Mr. Hemantha, who spent much of his career working in the textiles and garments sector in the UK, says that the intention of making the mill a vertically integrated one was to better control supplies, quality and cost.

“To go from a single garment production unit to a fully integrated mill is an enormous step. We had to start by constructing the buildings, which illustrates how new everything is. But we had extremely efficient support from Monforts and Bengal Technological, both in installation and in training, and the mill is now working very effectively”, he adds.

The Montex stenter features a wide range of energy saving solutions providing reduced running costs, improved efficiency and productivity, and has an integrated heat recovery system fitted as standard.

Energy saving, says Mr. Hemantha, is a very important aspect of textiles production in Bangladesh because of uncertainty of power supply, and as backup to the main supply the company has installed two generator sets, one powered by gas and the other by diesel.

Montex is handling approximately 10 tonnes of fabric per day, working at the rate of 26 days per month, the remainder being holiday or downtime for maintenance. It can handle fabrics up to 240 cm in width, although the most usual widths range from 172 to 200 cm. The weight of the fabrics handled ranges from 180 to 320 g/m².

Flexibility of the Montex allows the mill to undertake small runs and to work with customers on developing new product lines, often niche products that will have a limited production run.

Turag is a 100% supplier to the export market, with Germany taking 30-40 per cent of output, and France and Sweden also representing significant markets. Small quantities are going to the UK and Japan.