Jmv

COMPANY PROFILE

2013

JMV

From thread to finish

company report

From thread to finish Editorial – Joe Forshaw Production – Chris Bolderstone

Since 1971, JMV Textiles has been an integral part of South Africa’s textile manufacturing industry.

Managing Director, Jay Valjee, tells IndustrySA that although times have been hard, in 2013 things are looking up and new investments are going to provide a boost for the KZN based company.

South Africa’s textile and clothing industry has seen a huge decline over the past two decades. The pressure on pricing from competitors in East has increased and made the industry an unattractive prospect for many manufacturers. Even some of the long standing, large scale organisations, that once dominated South Africa’s textile industry, have fallen to the wayside because of the switch to importing from places like China and Bangladesh.

This is the same for textile manufacturing across the globe and it takes an innovative approach to business and a commitment to quality for companies to compete in the modern environment.

We have featured a select few companies in the past that have this approach and commitment, and it has seen them perform very well with real expansion and growth opportunities presenting themselves. So is this an industry with potential to boost the economy? Should we look at textiles as an area in which jobs can be created?

PAGE 2 JUL 13

JMV Textiles Founder and Managing Director, Jay Valjee, says that with the correct management, companies in this industry can definitely be successful.

“We’ve tried getting into the export market; we established warehouses in England and the States but we had a major problem – we could not outsell the Chinese.

The pricing from China is so unbelievably low that even in South Africa, the industry has been decimated. The industry is probably only 25% of what it used to be. All of the major knitters have shut up shop. The big companies have either closed or dramatically reduced their work.

The scale of decimation is unbelievable.

“We are looking into expanding into Africa but again, the Chinese have entered these markets and their prices are so low, you just can’t imagine how it’s done. I’ve been to Shanghai and a few other Chinese cities and they look like very prosperous places so I can’t understand how they do what they do and manufacture so cheaply.

“One of the reasons JMV has grown from nothing to where we are today, covering 17,000m², is because we are

JMV Textiles

a family owned company and management is in the hands of the family.”

There is very much a family feel about the JMV business and since its establishment in 1971, the company has seen multiple generations of Valjee’s family work within the business. The togetherness and unity displayed by the family is one of the drivers of the company’s success and underpins the vision of the company - to create a well-run family owned fabric manufacturing business enterprise based on value, quality and service which will be of benefit to customers, staff and shareholders.

“When my father passed away, my brother and I became the heads of the family so to speak and we’ve always operated as a family group, using our resources to grow and this is one of the reasons for our success,” says Valjee.

“At JMV we have three generations working hand in hand.

My two grandsons have joined the business together with my sons, nephews and brothers.

“I will soon relinquish control to the younger generations and one thing I have taught them is that in

unity there is strength. Hopefully we will carry on for a generation or two more.”

A LONG HISTORY JMV has faced challenges, right from the day it was established. The company has had to be flexible and adjust to the demands of the market. After starting out with the manufacturing of socks, the company switched its focus to manufacturing knitted fabrics as Valjee explains.

“In 1971 I established the company and we started manufacturing socks. That didn’t prove very profitable.

We ordered some circular knitting machines and the first arrived in 1971 and this is when the bottom fell out of the industry. I had ordered 12 machines from Wildt Mellor Bromley in Leicester, England but we had to cut the order down to three.

“We had entered an industry where knits were no longer the in thing; woven fabric was now required by the designers. At that point, we went into fabrics for the African trade. Prior to this, polyester was quite expensive

JUL 13 PAGE 3

company report and out of reach of the sections of the general population.

We bought stock yarns from South African nylon spinners and whatever they had that was refused by customers we bought. We managed to use it to make fabric for the African trade and this proved quite successful.”

To complement the production of fabric, JMV started a new business, soon after its initial inception, to manufacturer garments. “We opened a garment manufacturing branch so that we could utilise fabric that we manufactured,” says Valjee, “this also proved a successful venture.”

The garment manufacturing company, Solar Sport, forms part of the JMV Textiles group which also includes Polydye (Pty) Ltd, a yarn dyeing facility that supplies polyester, nylon, cotton, Polycotton, acrylic and viscose yarns, both dyed and natural.

As the group continues to grow, the company has recently invested in a new facility, which Solar Sport will occupy, leaving their old space for printing services.

“In order to deal with the major companies like Nike and Adidas, Solar Sport needed a world class facility. We are always expanding and we have just purchased a panel printing company so we needed more space. Because of this, we built our new facility which will house Solar Sport

PAGE 4 JUL 13

and the old premises will be turned into a panel printing plant. We do rotary printing on fabric and we do panel printing or garments.

“Until 1980, garment manufacturing was an integral part of JMV but we decided to separate the two operations and Solar Sport was created for the manufacture of garments and JMV carried on with the task of manufacturing fabric,” says Valjee.

FROM THREAD TO FINISH Following its expansion and acquisitions, JMV now offers a fully integrated service to clients. “We are one of the few, if not the only company in South Africa that works from a thread to finished garments,” explains Valjee.

This is popular among JMV’s long list of clients, a list which boasts some of the biggest chains in the country. “All of the chains including the likes of Woolworths and Edgars and all of the corporate companies are clients of ours,” says Valjee.

The company has developed a large portfolio of services and a large workforce to deliver those services and Valjee says that assistance from the government and the local community has played a big part in building up the operation.

JMV Textiles “In the last few years we have received assistance from the state so that we can buy new equipment and modernise our factories.

“During the slump, we bought machines from South African companies that had closed their doors and we continue to buy and upgrade machinery. Today, we have 50 circular machines and we produce something like 30,000m of fabric per day.

“We have a full plant for processing, finishing and screen printing. We also have a yarn dying facility where we dye cotton, poly cotton and polyester yarns for ourselves and the trade in general.

“In total we have around 600 employees. The management is spread out through these people and we draw our skills from the South African community,” he says.

The hands-on management style and the unrivalled, diverse capabilities of the group have continued to drive the business forward even through the challenges presented by the East, and even through the global economic slowdown which is still being felt throughout South Africa.

“It has caused a dent in our turnover,” admits Valjee, “the business is family financed so we’ve have to literally cut the suit according to the cloth. We have survived and this year has been an improvement. 2010 was probably our best year;

tiles ”We wish to congratulate JMV Tex iness for their on-going success and bus ir the excellence. We are proud to be years” insurance partner for the past 20

we could not turn out enough goods. Between 2010 and 2012, the slide had started and we hit the bottom in 2012 but 2013 has started promisingly and with the new things that we are going to be doing, things should perk up quite a bit.”

When the upturn in market conditions does come, JMV will be ready to supply to customers, big and small, with quick turnaround times and a high quality focus and Valjee concludes by reminding us of the advantages of looking to South Africa.

“If people want something urgently, we can deliver,” he says. “We can deliver within three weeks of receiving an order. Just shipping from China takes six weeks let alone processing an order. The chain stores know this and if they are let down they can always come to us.”

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“One of the reasons JMV has grown from nothing to where we are today, covering 17,000m², is because we are a family owned company and management is in the hands of the family”

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Tel: (031) 573 1390(1) Fax: (031) 573 1392 Email: info@jivanandjivan.co.za www.jivanandjivan.co.za

+27 32 533 1070 www.jmvtextiles.co.za

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