Avery Dennison has launched a manufacturing facility in Bangladesh in partnership with Youngone Corporation. The 2,052-sqm unit, located in the Korean Export Processing Zone (KEPZ) in Chattogram, will enable strong service quality and flexibility to local customers, the partners announced on Sunday.  Chairman and CEO of Youngone Corporation Kihak Sung said the investment in KEPZ will give a competitive edge to Avery Dennison in terms of speed and flexibility to serve its clients with reduced business cost and lead time. “It gives me immense pleasure to welcome Avery Dennison as one of the investors in Korean EPZ (KEPZ), the leading eco-friendly EPZ in this region. Avery Dennison and Youngone will partner on backward linkage industries for apparel and textile,” he said. In today’s fast-paced business world, a “do-it-alone” approach is not the best strategy for growth, Sung said.  READ: Set up spare parts, tools manufacturing units in EZs: Industries Minister Harnessing the strengths and abilities of others from different areas is one of the most strategic ways for businesses to promote innovation and solve complex challenges by merging talent, expertise and technology, he said.  “I’m confident that Avery Dennison, with its high-quality products and international prestige, will grow together with Youngone and other business partners. We’ll extend all possible support and cooperation to Avery Dennison to move forward in achieving its business goal.” Highlighting the potential benefits of this project, Vice President and General Manager, South Asia, Avery Dennison Kenny Liu said this manufacturing unit is a remarkable step forward as they expand their capabilities to serve the local market, as well as global customers.  “We thank Youngone for their support to set up this site within the KEPZ, which enables us to better serve Youngone and our Chattogram customers and support their need for speed in today's highly dynamic market,” Kenny Liu said. READ: Symphony opens handset manufacturing unit  The KEPZ, set up by Youngone in 1999 on the bank of Karnaphuli, hosts the largest (40Mw) rooftop solar project in Bangladesh, to power industrial activities with renewable energy, while over 2.5 million trees have been planted, covering about 400 species.

Textile zone at the Korean Export Processing Zone (KEPZ) in Chattogram will become a “textile hub” in Bangladesh bringing a lot of businesses if the required support is provided to "quickly and fully '' implement it, says the Youngone chief.   He said the five mega factories, if completed, will have a combined floor space of over 2,000,000 sft.   “Bangladesh needs to make a lot of efforts to produce and supply more manmade fibre (MMF) so that such a supply chain is established successfully here,” said South Korea-based global conglomerate Youngone Corporation Chairman and CEO Kihak Sung.  Also read: S Korea provides US$ 1 mn to IOM to support Rohingyas ... He said such efforts will help Bangladesh get a lot of businesses, not losing everything to Vietnam. “That’s my challenge now.” During an interaction at the KEPZ recently, Sung said they have a budget to invest another US$ 400 million of their investment. “As long as we’re competitive and customers can take our goods and they make a profit, then we can increase it (investment volume)." Youngone already started manufacturing polyester fabrics at the two latest state-of-the-art polyester product factories with a floor space of over 430,000 for each which will be expanded to two more similar units for export and supply of high-quality products to garments and apparel factories in Bangladesh as an import substitute and backward linkage. Read Textile backbone of Bangladesh’s industrial efforts: FM “We want to be really supportive of Bangladesh garment factories. We need to make raw materials, garments and everything here,” Sung said, adding that quality energy supply still remains the main challenge. He said they are applying for the generation of captive power in the KEPZ to meet "essential demand of quality" power supply for the sophisticated textile industries.