When brands are looking for knitted fabrics, and they want a wide selection to choose from – that offers good quality and is sustainable – they come to Varakith Textile Co., Ltd.
The company has built upon its legacy as a third-generation family-owned manufacturer by investing in state-of-the-art technology and using the best raw materials.
“We realized that we can’t compete with neighboring countries on price, but what we can offer is better quality – and a domestic supply chain that includes spinning, dyeing and knitting,” said Theeradej Thanasarakij.
The foundation of good quality is in the materials that are used.
“We have many different machines. This enables us to offer customers a very wide variety of fabrics. ”
“We started to compare the yarns that we were using and we found that those made from U.S. cotton had consistently better quality. The quality was very stable and we have less problems with the knitting,” he said.
Smaller Can Be Better
After decades of brands favoring bigger manufacturers, today the demand is for smaller orders. Even major brands want the flexibility that comes when MOQs are lower.
Varakith Textile has a capacity of 200 tons per month. Minimum order size is based on using 100 kg of yarn, assuming it’s not yarn dyed. They will accept even smaller orders, if they can source the yarn in smaller quantities.
“We have about 80 machines, but they don’t all produce the same fabric. This enables us to offer customers a very wide variety, but it does limit the volume we can make of each kind of fabric,” said Mr. Thanasarakij
The Growing Demand for Transparency
The pressure on brands and retailers to know the details about what’s in their supply chains continues to increase. Governments are legislating new sustainability standards. NGOs are championing greater restrictions on materials and processes they feel are not sustainable.
“More of our customers want to know about the materials we use. We recommend to them that they choose fabrics made from U.S. cotton because the quality is good and it is grown using sustainable agricultural practices,” said Mr. Thanasarakij.
Thailand’s domestic textile supply chain gives the nation a competitive advantage on speed, flexibility – and also transparency.
The close linkage of spinners through to garment manufacturers makes it easier to control all aspects of the supply chain – makes it more difficult to hide any problems.
In addition, the fact that so many companies have joined the U.S. Cotton Trust Protocol® (Trust Protocol) makes products sourced in Thailand standout as being very transparent.
“We believe that the Trust Protocol is very important and will become even more important in the future. A growing number of our customers are pushing us to provide them with information about our processes and our supply chain. Our customers from Japan are asking if we are a member of the Trust Protocol since they like to use this as part of their marketing.
“Even for other customers, because we are a Trust Protocol member we have the information they need to show that their products are sustainable,” he said.
“There is greater concern from brands about reducing carbon footprint and helping to heal the planet. One of our targets is to do what we can to improve the environment.”
A Future Enhanced by Technology
Varakith Textile believes that part of the future success of their business will be driven by advanced technology.
“My vision is to have new machines that utilize AI to do a lot of things that we do manually today. This would include programming the knitting machines, but also managing maintenance, like being able to automatically repair machines, measure exactly how much yarn is consumed and alert you when the level of certain dyes gets too low,” said Mr. Thanasarakij.
With the aid of advanced technology, and a commitment to quality and sustainability, manufacturers like Varakith Textile are positioning themselves to continue to lead the textile industry.
Email. vrkpom@gmail.com | website: www.vrkt.com/
| Tel. +66-2-416 8850
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
