When the pandemic hit many companies cut back and tried to weather the storm. Mandarin Spinning Co. Ltd. saw this as an opportunity to do the kind of maintenance on its facilities that can be difficult during normal times when the mill is busy producing a bigger volume of orders.
“We are doing what we call reengineering while we perform maintenance on our machinery. It will take us another six months to a year for us to complete this initiative,” said Somsak Wongsirikul.
The project is part of Mandarin Spinning’s commitment to maintain its product quality.
“Quality is of the utmost importance to us. We try to maintain a very consistent level of quality so our customers know that they can rely on our products,” he said.
The company, which was 1978 started out making synthetic as well as cotton yarn but gradually switched all to cotton items. Currently Mandarin Spinning has 40,000 spindles and consumes around 500 ton of cotton each month.
Quality Yarns are the Foundation of Quality Fabrics and Garments
“Customers know that when they are using our yarn that it is very durable and reliable. They don’t need to worry about any unexpected problems occurring.
“When our customers invest in weaving, knitting and dyeing our yarn, should anything happen, they could miss their shipment to their customer. So we are very serious about the quality of the products we provide to our customers,” said Mr. Wongsirikul.
A core part of achieving consistent, high quality yarn comes from Mandarin Spinning’s choice of cotton.
“In terms of quality, U.S. cotton is the most reliable. When we buy U.S. cotton we are assured that the quality will be exactly what we ordered. Consistent quality of our raw materials is very important to us.
“Because the quality is consistent we can maintain lower inventories. We know that when we reorder the quality will be quite stable. Being able to keep inventory levels low is very important for us, especially now that raw materials are very expensive,” said Mr. Wongsirikul.
“Quality is of the utmost importance to us. We try to maintain a very consistent level of quality so our customers know that they can rely on our products.”
“We are very concerned about our customer’s final product. If anything happens, we will try to see how we can help them resolve the problem.”
Ensuring That Products Meet Top Sustainability Standards
Brands are now challenged to meet increasingly strict standards for sustainability and for transparency. To help customers ensure that their supply chains meet these new demands, Mandarin Spinning has joined the U.S. Cotton Trust Protocol® (the Trust Protocol).
“I think the Trust Protocol will be important to show customers that we are meeting the top standards which could help us build customer trust and loyalty as they are one of the worthy goals for our business.”
Meeting Market Challenges
“Right now the biggest challenge is that everything is unpredictable. You can’t even forecast the trend of raw materials price for the next one or two months. The whole world seems to be constantly changing so people are starting to feel insecure. It makes it difficult for us to plan our business,” he said.
This makes having reliable suppliers of raw materials, like Mandarin Spinning and U.S. cotton, even more important since they can help customers mitigate some of the risks.
Email. cwongsirikul@gmail.com | Tel. +66 2 583 7430
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
