When one of Japan’s most famous denim mills needed to expand its production, they searched for locations throughout Southeast Asia and ultimately chose Thailand.
“Our customer asked us to add more production capacity beyond the 2 million meters per month of denim we produced each month in Japan. However, this was difficult to do in Japan due to high costs and labor shortages, so we looked for an alternative location. So we chose Thailand due to its good infrastructure and its being a logistics hub,” said Hideaki Haba, managing director of Kaihara (Thailand) Co., Ltd.
Kaihara (Thailand) was established in 2014 in Ratchaburi province, about 90 km outside of Bangkok. The 50,000 sq. meter facility employs 350 people and produces both blue and black denim with a total capacity of 1 million meters per month. The factory has 2 dyeing machines, 120 rapier weaving machines, as well as finishing machines.
“We chose Thailand over other Southeast Asia nations due to its good infrastructure and its being a logistics hub.”
Shortly after the facility was built, Kaihara (Thailand) received a huge 500,000 meter contract from a customer. The company was very happy to get the order but was also panicked about producing this size order since they had only just started recruiting local staff.
“We had to quickly hire local people near the facility. However they were not very experienced in production so we brought in Japanese technicians and they started to train the local staff.
“Over the years, we reduced the number of Japanese technicians as the local team learned the production operations,” said Mr. Haba.
Part of why Kaihara’s production is able to run smoothly is because they invest in the best raw materials.
Establishing a Stable and Transparent Supply Chain
“The reason why we love U.S. cotton is because the production volume is the top class in the world so it means that the supply is very stable and we can purchase the cotton whenever we need it.
“We find the price of U.S. cotton to be very reasonable and the quality is very high. So those are the three reasons that we choose to use U.S. cotton,” said Mr. Haba.
Kaihara (Thailand) has recently become a member of the U.S. Cotton Trust Protocol®.
“Our customers’ requirements are very strict regarding the sustainability and traceability of their products so that’s why we have joined the U.S. Cotton Trust Protocol. It helps give them the assurance that our denim fabric meets these requirements,” he said.
New Products for New Seasons
The company enhances its products twice a year with its R&D team working with customer’s designers.
“Right now the trend is for very soft materials with lots of stretch. For the next trend we are working on the high power stretch or ultra stretch materials that will have even more stretch than the current materials,” he said.
“We are also planning to start producing a special function denim here in Thailand.”
Looking ahead, Kaihara (Thailand) plans to build upon the success it has achieved and will expand its capacity to 1.5 million meters per month.
Email. wimonsiri-s@kaihara-denim.in.th | Tel. +66 (0) 3223-4630 | http://www.kaihara-denim.com
Certified Sustainable
The Trust Protocol is aligned with existing sustainability programs including the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals. It brings quantifiable and verifiable goals and measurement to sustainable cotton production, and drives continuous improvement in six key sustainability metrics – land use, soil carbon, water management, soil loss, greenhouse gas emissions, and energy efficiency. The Trust Protocol is designed from the ground up to address the unique regulatory and larger farm growing environment in the United States.
How the Trust Protocol Works
The Protocol Consumption Management Solution (PCMS) starts at the gin when the participating producer’s cotton is ginned and each unique Permanent Bale Identification number (PBI) is attached. At this point we know the exact gin weight and can create an exact amount of Protocol Cotton Consumption Units, where one Protocol Cotton Consumption Unit is created for each kilogram of Protocol Verified Cotton. This important step provides absolute authentication of U.S. cotton origin, verifying against the USDA database.
Supply Chain Transparency
The PCMS harnesses blockchain technology through a powerful combination of the Trust Protocol platform and TextileGenesis™ system to deliver full supply chain transparency by recording and verifying the movement of U.S. cotton along the entire supply chain. This creates article-specific transparency for finished products that was not previously accessible to brands and retailers.
Trusted Third Party Certification
The Trust Protocol incorporates a comprehensive program of verification against Trust Protocol benchmarks, in the form of both second-party and independent third-party audits of grower performance through Control Union Certifications—the latter through allocated on-site visits.
Control Union Certifications has certified over 150 industry standards programs worldwide, including working as a key partner in the early development and piloting phases of Impact Claim Verification Protocol.
Learn More https://trustuscotton.org
The COTTON USA Advantage
- Family growers who are committed to working their fields sustainably and leaving them better for future generations.
- A long history of innovative harvesting and ginning technologies resulting in higher-quality cotton.
- One of the highest rates of adoption in the world for Precision Agriculture, which minimizes water and pesticide usage.
- U.S. farmers operate under voluminous, stringent, and enforceable regulations.
- A commitment to transparent partnership that is unmatched anywhere.
- One of the most comprehensive systems for monitoring and measuring all the key metrics involved in sustainability.
U.S. Cotton Facts
- 2/3 of U.S. cotton land uses only rain water
- U.S. cotton water use efficiency has improved by 79% over the past 35 years
- Cotton is carbon footprint neutral, meaning the plants remove more greenhouse gasses than production produces.
Sustainability Goals
The U.S. cotton industry is building upon the strong environmental gains already achieved over the past 35 years. The aim is to help members meet their current needs while making the world a better place for future generations.
Specific goals include:
- Reducing by 13 percent the amount of land needed to produce a pound of cotton fiber
- Reducing soil loss by 50 percent, in balance with new soil formation
- Increasing water use efficiency (more fiber per gallon) by 18 percent
- Reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 39 percent
- Increasing soil carbon in fields by 30 percent
- Reducing energy to produce seed cotton and ginned lint by 15 percent
Learn More www.cotton.org
