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The drive towards greater sustainability and the demand for more personalized apparel has even the biggest brands placing smaller orders.
While most mills and manufacturers are looking to scale up, one unique Indonesia mill is trimming unnecessary capacity in order to focus on improving quality.
“In a sense, we are quite different from most of the factories who usually focus more on the volume business. We work with smaller MOQs and offer more attention to detail. For example, we have our own embroidery facilities,” said Michelle Tjokrosaputro, owner of Dan Liris.
“We are a ‘boutique’ factory that can do more personalized orders. We really cater to those small to medium sized brands that have more detailed orders,” she said, explaining that around 60 percent of Dan Liris’s orders are for less than 200 pieces and can be even a lot smaller than that.
Although Dan Liris specializes in smaller orders their annual output is quite sizable producing 7.5 million garments each year. That’s supported by 39.5 million meters per year of dyeing and printing capacity.
This Indonesian manufacturer is a completely vertical operation from spinning to finished garments, including dyeing, weaving, printing and embroidery. Dan Liris has a lot of specialized machinery including its own continuous dye machines, the ability to do transfer prints and digital printing, and embroidery.
“Brands are now focusing on smaller MOQs and are requesting greater sustainability, so we are focusing on that too,” she added.
“What sets us apart are our values. Many companies can have similar machines and similar products. However, we pay attention to our values."
Living By a Code of Values
Dan Liris has strong values and they stay true to them.
“What sets us apart are our values. Many companies can have similar machines and similar products. However, we pay attention to our values. We really live by our values so that we can be a source of joy for our surroundings. We care about the people around us – it’s our way of life.
“Thus, we are very conscious of the way we do business. That way we are not only sustainable in terms of fibers, materials and the things that are needed to pass audits and meet compliance regulations, but we work with the local and regional governments to help the government in meeting the needs of the people. We work a lot with our surroundings to make sure that the people around us can benefit from our existence.
“So again, it’s not just the products, it’s the values that we live by as a company that sets us apart,” said Ms. Tjokrosaputro.
Building from a Legacy in Batik
Dan Liris started out 1974 as a weaving company founded by Ms. Tjokrosaputro’s father and uncle. Originally the company simply supplied fabric to her father’s family batik business.
“Back in those days batik was all done by hand. They needed the greige fabric. After my father and uncle started the weaving factory, they built the spinning factory and then added a dyeing facility. They kept adding more processes until finally they were making finished garments,” said Ms. Tjokrosaputro.
At the end of the day, they become more independent by having their own supply chain, which they could control from end to end. Further, they were not only able to support the batik business, but could also grow as a textile business.
About 60-70 percent of Dan Liris’s textile product is sold to the domestic market, however 100 percent of its garment production is exported.
Quality Conscious and Eco Conscious
Quality and sustainability start with the kind of materials used. Here, too, Dan Liris invests in fibers that are in line with their company values.
“There are many kinds of cotton around the world, but now our buyer expects a certain standard of quality and sustainability. They want to know the origin of the cotton. So it’s not just about the final product. Our customers want to know the history of the materials, like the story of the cotton fiber.
“We choose to use U.S. cotton because In terms of the quality and also the guarantee that the cotton is grown using sustainable methods – these are both very important to us and COTTON USA can meet those standards.
“The new US Cotton Trust Protocol (USCTP) provides assurance not only for us but also for our buyers, especially for the brands,” said Ms. Tjokrosaputro.
“The USCTP is a must-have right now. With it you know you are using sustainable fibers and have the certifications and assurance that the fibers are sustainably sourced. So I think it’s a must have for all the companies right now to have it. It’s not even whether we should have it or not,” she added.
“Especially for the younger generation, they’re more demanding in terms of their standards for sustainability. They’re able to spot you where your weaknesses are. It’s not just talking about and advertising that you’re sustainable. They really want to know whether you breathe sustainability – whether you live by it.”
A High Value Vision for the Future
Indonesia is considered to be a developed nation and thus must focus on moving up the value chain rather than competing on price.
“I believe that the future for Indonesian companies is to bring value to the buyers and be forward thinking in terms of what the buyers and the customers need. This pandemic is really a total reset in terms of what we produce for the customers. We’ve been strengthening our R&D team and we’re not only focusing on creating another color or another construction, but also on more sustainable fibers. That’s why, for example, we joined the US Trust Protocol,” said Ms. Tjokrosaputro.
“We’re also looking at how we can improve our facilities to make sure we’re more sustainable. This pandemic really made us reflect on where we want to go forward with our company? Where is our future? Our values should come first, even if that means becoming a bit smaller. We can see the new direction the market is taking, driven by new consumer demands, and we want Dan Liris to be prepared to meet this.”
Dan Liris is one of the smart companies that have realized that continued expansion for the sake of expansion is no longer a wise direction to take.
“We merged some of our units and evaluated which of our machinery was wasting electricity and wasting water and we shut down some of those machines. We downsized a little so that we could focus on our core values. We will produce less but it will be of the highest quality,” she added.
Learn More www.danliris.com
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 82% 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
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
Through a combination of a unique credit accounting system and the Permanent Bale Identification (PBI) system, the Trust Protocol helps ensure the commitments behind our cotton. Each of the Trust Protocol credits are backed by real sustainability data and third-party verified.
Measures and Verifies Sustainability Commitments
The Trust Protocol enables brands and retailers to better track the cotton entering their supply chain and to further quantify and report on their individual sustainability goals and objectives.
Continuous Improvement in the Fields
The 16,000 cotton farms in the United States have been committed to continuous improvement for decades. Over the past 35 years, U.S. cotton production has used 79% less water per bale and 54% less energy. We have reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 40%, and land use per bale by 49%. We need to continue to innovate and introduce new practices that will serve to further position U.S. cotton as one of the most sustainable cotton growing nations in the world.
Learn More https://trustuscotton.org/about/
