A Report on the Embroidery Industry of Bangladesh

Findings, Recommendations, Insights

Institute of Business Administration

April 27, 2014

Big Dreams in Small Spaces

A REPORT ON THE EMBROIDERY INDUSTRY OF BANGLADESH

Prepared for:

Mr. Sheikh Morshed Jahan

Course Instructor: Bangladesh Studies

Prepared by:

Group 02

RH-01 Fariha Islam

ZR-03 Abdullah Atique

RH-04 Shaila Nusrat Aurin

RH-12 Samiha Zaker

ZR-14 Maruf Hassan

RH-23 Farah Binte Azam

ZR-27 Rehanul Islam

RH-29 Rubyat Tasfia Rahman

ZR-43 Rahimun Anik Haider

RH-45 Sylvia Islam

ZR-57 Abrar Bin Darda

RH-59 Aanisha Mahmood

BBA 20th Batch

Institute of Business Administration, University of Dhaka, Dhaka

April 27, 2014

Letter of Transmittal 27th April, 2014

Mr. Sheikh Morshed Jahan

Associate Professor

Institute of Business Administration (IBA)

University of Dhaka

Subject: Submission of Bangladesh Studies Report

Dear Sir,

Take our best regards. We, the members of Group 2, are hereby presenting our report on the

Embroidery Industry of Bangladesh as a requisite for our K202 Bangladesh Studies course.

We hope the report along with all the specifications that you guided us with meet with your

approval.

Yours sincerely,

Fariha Islam

Abdullah Atique

Shaila Nusrat Aurin

Samiha Zaker

Maruf Hasan

Farah Binte Azam

Rehanul Islam

Rubyat Tasfia Rahman

Rahimun Anik Haider

Sylvia Islam

Abrar Bin Darda

Aanisha Mahmood

Abstract The Embroidery Industry in Bangladesh has a rich history. Since the Mughal period, the

techniques of Embroidery have been passed from father to son, mother to daughter. However,

the advent of mechanical instruments has led to a downward spiral for the Embroidery

Industry.

For this report, we interviewed people from 4 different clusters to get a better view of the

Embroidery industry of the country- Cluster 1: The Bihari Embroider Community in the

Mohammadpur Geneva Camp, Cluster 2: The Female Embroidery Entrepreneurs in Joyeeta,

Cluster 3: The Embroiders in Khilgaon Taltola City Super Market, and Cluster 4: The

Embroiders in New Market.

The overall conditions of business and business environment varied almost drastically among

these four clusters studied. The Bihari community is in this business because of their inability

to engage in other sectors. The Female Entrepreneurs in Joyeeta are supported by the

government. The Embroiders in Khilgaon and New Market are more independent in their

trade.

We have included our major findings from these 4 trips. We also analyzed them using the

Sustainable Market Enterprise Competitiveness Model, the Triple-Triangle Framework, and

the Grid of Institutional Mandate. We included some of our recommendations at the end of

the report.

Table of Contents 1. Background ............................................................................................................................ 1

1.1 Embroidery ....................................................................................................................... 1

1.2 History of Embroidery ..................................................................................................... 1

1.3 Embroidery Industry in Bangladesh ................................................................................. 1

1.4 SWOT Analysis of the Embroidery Industry in Bangladesh ........................................... 3

2. Trip to Mohammadpur Bihari Camp ..................................................................................... 4

3. Trip to Joyeeta........................................................................................................................ 9

4. Trip to Khilgaon Taltola City Super Market........................................................................ 13

5. Trip to New Market ............................................................................................................. 16

6. Sustainable Market Enterprise Competitiveness ................................................................. 18

7. Triple Triangle Framework .................................................................................................. 20

8. Grid of Institutional Mandate............................................................................................... 22

9. Major Findings ..................................................................................................................... 23

9.1 New Market .................................................................................................................... 23

9.2 Khilgaon ......................................................................................................................... 24

9.3 Joyeeta ............................................................................................................................ 25

9.4 Mohammadpur ............................................................................................................... 26

10. Conclusions and Recommendations .................................................................................. 28

1 | R e p o r t

1. Background 1.1 Embroidery Embroidery is the handicraft of decorating fabric or other materials with needle and thread or

yarn. Embroidery may also incorporate other materials such as metal strips, pearls, beads,

quills, and sequins. Embroidery is most often used on caps, hats, coats, blankets, dress shirts,

denim, stockings, and golf shirts. Embroidery is available with a wide variety of thread or

yarn color.

1.2 History of Embroidery Embroidery has been dated to the Warring States period (5th-3rd century BC). The process

used to tailor, patch, mend and reinforce cloth fostered the development of sewing

techniques, and the decorative possibilities of sewing led to the art of embroidery. In a

garment from Migration period Sweden, roughly 300700 CE, the edges of bands of

trimming are reinforced with running stitch, back stitch, stem stitch, tailor's buttonhole stitch,

and whip stitching, but it is uncertain whether this work simply reinforced the seams or

should be interpreted as decorative embroidery.

1.3 Embroidery Industry in Bangladesh The Embroidery Industry in Bangladesh has a rich history. The history of the Embroidery in

this subcontinent can be traced as far back as the Mughal Dynasty. Emperor Akbar was said

to be a great admirer of the industry. For generations, the techniques of Embroidery have

been passed from father to son, mother to daughter. However, the advent of mechanical

instruments has led to a downward spiral for the Embroidery Industry.

For this report, we interviewed people from 4 different clusters to get a better view of the

Embroidery industry of the country-

1. Cluster 1: The Bihari Embroider Community in the Mohammadpur Geneva Camp

2. Cluster 2: The Female Embroidery Entrepreneurs in Joyeeta

3. Cluster 3: The Embroiders in Khilgaon Taltola City Super Market

4. Cluster 4: The Embroiders in New Market

2 | R e p o r t

The items on which Hand Embroidery is done usually include- various types of Saree and

other dresses like Salwar-Kamiz, Veil, Lahenga, Shawl, Scart, Maxi, Bridalveil, Blouse,

Panjabi, Fotua, Waist-coat, T-shirt, Sweater, Childs wear etc. In addition to that, other

products include Bed-Sheet, Pillow-Cover, Cushion-Cover, Chair-Cover, Table-Cloth, Hand

Bag etc.

The overall conditions of business and business environment varied almost drastically among

these four clusters studied. In Mohammadpur, where there is NO Government or NGO

initiatives to help and motivate the embroidery business entrepreneurs, another cluster-

Joyeeta is THE Government initiative to encourage women entrepreneurs. In Mohammadpur

Geneva Camp, there was hardly a business worth over or around 2,000,000 BDT, in New

Market, dealings in just three months might amount or even surpass this value.

The one common thing among these four clusters was the growing concern about the Hand

Embroidery Industry to be out of business very soon. Mostly, this fear and concern rose from

the rise in sales of Machine Embroidered clothes and apparels made in Bangladesh or India

and Pakistan, which are cheaper to buy and faster to made. The remuneration and profits they

receive are good enough as the finished goods i.e. embroidered clothes are handmade and

naturally can fetch a higher price, but the overall value of the profit and remuneration are not

imply enough to keep these entrepreneurs going. Most of these entrepreneurs started their

initiatives out of livelihood needs, but reason for choosing this industry was particularly a

learned skill from family or community.

Treatment of employees or Karigors is exceptionally good in this business, as the success of

the business hinges on the skill, willingness and sincerity of these workers. On the basis of

our field works, filled- up questionnaires and interviews a SWOT Analysis was done on this

sector.

3 | R e p o r t

1.4 SWOT Analysis of the Embroidery Industry in Bangladesh

Strengths

Highly skilled workers

Local products

Comaparatively lower priced products than foreign hand embroidered clothes

Intricacy and durability of hand embroiderd products

Weaknesses

Loan ineligibility related to less contacts and low loan taking history

Low number of existing manpower

Inconvenient locations

Lower overall profit

Dependency on customers for survival

Threats

Increasing competition

Lower price of machine embroidered clothes

and apparels

Increasing costs of raw materials, e.g. Jori, silk

threads etc.

Opportunities

Increasing demand for hand crafted clothes

and apparels

Skilled and willing unused manpower

4 | R e p o r t

2. Trip to Mohammadpur Bihari Camp At the time of The Great Partition in 1947, a large number of Urdu-speaking Muslim people

migrated from India to the then East Pakistans territory, which is now Bangladesh. All the

migrated Urdu-speaking Indian people became Pakistani. Many of them had started living in

Mohammadpur area of Dhaka. Since 1971 the community people has almost doubled in

number due to high birth rate in the camps.

There is little economic opportunity for the Biharis in or outside the camps. Jobs in

Bangladesh are scarce, and loans for small business supplies like looms and cloth are

virtually non-existent. A good number of old people have turned to begging and an estimated

20,000 unmarried girls are vulnerable to human trafficking and forced prostitution to make a

living.

The embroidery business cluster in Mohammadpur developed mostly because of livelihood

needs and a limited access to other skills and business finance. There were only a few

Mahajons (entrepreneurs) for each of whom about 25- 30 skilled workers worked day long.

They work mostly with personally ordered embroidered clothes and if the order is any bigger

than 30 pieces, they usually outsource it to Savar, where according to them-theres more

manpower and embroidery machines make it cheaper and faster to perform such medium to

large orders.

According to the Mahajons, their employees take the lions share of the pieces the employees

work on. One of the Mahajon said, for example, that if a normal light embroidery cloth is

priced 500 taka, then the employees have to be given at least 300 taka or in many cases 400

taka.

Entrance of amateur workers at their youth is very limited as the Mahajons usually prefer

already skilled worker over a non-experienced one. Mostly when these people are very

young, 9- 12 years of age, they start to get a hands-on experience with the craft of embroidery

with their parents or with any Mahajons.

Monthly profit varies with the size and type of embroidery crafts the people have here. It

ranges from a mere 6000 taka to about 50,000 taka. The costs of the raw materials- like

thread or chumkis make it harder for them to have an increased profit margin.

5 | R e p o r t

Image: Narrow Alleys in the Bihari Camp of Mohammadpur

Image: Karigors working on a Saree

6 | R e p o r t

Image: The Bihari Embroiders have to work in dim lights that causes problems in vision

Image: Male and Female Embroiders work together in Mohammadpur Bihari Camp

7 | R e p o r t

Image: Bihari Children often help out their parents in the embroidery work

Image: One of the Bihari children excitedly showing us his embroidery work

8 | R e p o r t

Perspective: Because of their familys never ending poverty, Bihari Children often have to

work with their parents in their Embroidery Work. Nevertheless, these children can still

smile and dream of a better future.

9 | R e p o r t

3. Trip to Joyeeta Joyeeta is a long envisioned venture of Government of Peoples Republic of Bangladesh. It

is a platform to support and facilitate the grass root level women entrepreneurs to market

their own arts, crafts and products. It nurtures the cultural heritage of Bangladesh. It has

about 30-40 stalls by women entrepreneurs, arranged in different blocks.

Joyeeta is a latest government initiative to promote women entrepreneurs and co-operatives

around Bangladesh. Almost 180 small scale entrepreneurs are able to benefit by selling

directly to end consumers under the banner of Joyeeta. The shopping area, consisting of two

top floors (3rd and 4th floor) at Rapa Plaza, Dhanmondi, opened its door to the public on

November 16, 2011. Various stalls here showcase a wide range of Bangladeshi handicrafts,

food, clothing, fabrics, hand-loom and other traditional products.

Most of the stalls specialize in exclusive traditional and designer Bangladeshi clothing which

are hand embroidered. As a socially aware business, they are committed to work with cottage

industry weavers, jewelers and artisans to ensure a fairer deal for them. In future they plan to

continue to add new products and bring exclusive designs.

Current condition:

Inconvenient location, as customers do not bother to go up to the top floor of the

shopping mall to make purchases.

Joyeeta does not get much exposure as no marketing initiative has been taken to increase

awareness among people about the existence of Joyeeta. So the business suffers, even

though they offer better quality of products and varied designs than fashion houses.

Unable to predict the current market trends which results in huge losses. For example, an

entrepreneur stocked up on fatuas for Pohela Boishakh as part of her seasonal sale, but

trend in the market had shifted to long kurtis or traditional sarees, so sales was less than

expected.

Factors affecting sustainable business:

For most of these small entrepreneurs profit making and maintaining a good customer

relationship are the most important factors because they would not be able to sustain the

business in the long-run without making profit, and customers must be satisfied in order to

10 | R e p o r t

ensure their return for repurchase. Next comes keeping employees happy to retain them in

their jobs and ensure that they are dedicated to the work. Suppliers and distributors come at

the end because entrepreneurs generally maintain a good relationship with them and most of

them do not have distributors.

Manpower: The industry has a large number of highly skilled people who are willing to

work. These entrepreneurs either employ these efficient workers to work under them or

sometimes the entrepreneur just outsources the orders received from customers to these

women working independently.

Access to fund: Most entrepreneurs easily obtained loans to finance their business but banks

required security against loans and interest rate is considerably high.

Work culture: Sometimes workers cannot complete the work on time, tendency to switch

jobs because of higher wages by a competitor is quite common.

Competition: Inside Joyeeta, competition is quite fair as every stall has something different,

although there have been cases of design being copied by others, but the playing field in the

industry is unfair because fashion houses have better location and more exposure.

Demand: Compared to previous years, demand has considerably increased as more people

are inclined towards purchasing local products, but alternately demand for branded clothing

from fashion houses has increased too and foreign clothing e.g. Pakistani and Indian

embroidered clothing has monopolized the market.

Globalization factor: Demand for traditional embroidery work on blankets, bed-sheets, wall

hangings, apparel etc. has grown in recent years, and many entrepreneurs now participate in

fairs in India, Pakistan, China to showcase their products, while many export to foreign

countries.

Technology: Currently, technology includes only sewing machines for the machine

embroidery but the demand for hand embroidery is more where every stitch is done

meticulously by hand. There is still a need for automated machines which would greatly

improve efficiency. Moreover, they need better access to information technology to keep up

with global trends and designs.

State actions and social expectations: Government policies related to export of embroidered

clothing should be more lenient and regulations regarding price and supply of foreign

11 | R e p o r t

products monopolizing the market should be controlled to make the environment friendlier

for small entrepreneurs to thrive. Social expectations regarding local products is still quite

low as most customers still prefer foreign apparel over local ones. Many believe that local

products are of poorer quality and should be priced less but in reality embroidering each

product by hand requires a long time and tremendous effort which is consequently reflected

in the price. So this perception should be changed.

12 | R e p o r t

Image: Customers looking at Embroidery Products in Joyeeta

Image: Customers browsing Embroidery Products in Joyeeta

13 | R e p o r t

4. Trip to Khilgaon Taltola City Super Market Khilgaon Taltola City Super Market holds a large number of embroidery shops on the first

floor. The people over there were working and were pretty busy, but they still took some to

answer our questions.

Most of the people we interviewed didnt have a parent or a grandparent who was a

businessman, and most of them started this business around 10 years ago. The reason for

starting this business was to earn a living, and they choose this industry because it was easy

to set up, cost of starting was low and some entered this because of family reasons.

Number of people in a shop rarely exceeds 6 these are really small businesses. Monthly

expenditure is under Tk. 1 lac. The business and the industry have been performing agreeably

over the years, but now it is seeing a rapid loss of customers. The demand for products is

entirely dependent on customers, so the businesses perform poorly when the customers dont

come. In times of Eid, Puja or other occasions they face large orders of clothes, but during the

rest of the year they have comparatively much lower level of work.

The entrepreneurs are in this business to earn a living, so making profit is vital. In their line if

you cant keep customer happy business would wither away, and if you dont keep

employees they would not perform well, so these two conditions must also be met. Keeping

good relations with suppliers is important but not very much so. And with businesses of such

small size it is difficult for them to serve the society and give something back. The

perceptions regarding these factors has seen some change over the years, but mostly in

customer segment in the sense that they have to keep them even more happy now since there

are now a much wider array of choices available.

The manpower required for this embroidery business is not widely available. In the older

days, employees had apprentices who paid to learn work. Now people are not interested in

working in this sector. The current employees tend to go work for others if they are paid

more, and also tend to switch to other professions.

There is a lot more competition than there used to be. There are more embroiders than before,

and there are so much more shops selling ready-made clothes than before. There is now

14 | R e p o r t

availability of more automated machines that can make clothes which are making embroiders

redundant. The competition is fairly ethical, but there are some complaints of predatory

pricing some embroiders selling at a very low price to lure customers away and drive others

out of the market.

The level of technological use for this industry is already at its peak they are using the best

sewing machines (better sewing machines are not made regularly, and there is also less

incentive for doing so). Sufficient finance is available to the entrepreneurs. They can easily

borrow money from banks if they have good relationships with them. They can also get loans

from family or friends to invest in business (which is more common). They arent a part of

any association or chamber, and the industry doesnt have any association either.

Almost everyone agrees that this is a dying industry, but some say that since demand is

entirely dependent on customers there is still the opportunity to survive if they can attract

sufficient customers. Some say that the flexible nature of the design and quality of clothes is

a major strength. Major threats include the shopping malls that are setting up all over Dhaka

city. Weakness would be over dependency on customers for survival.

15 | R e p o r t

Image: Embroiders in Khilgaon Taltola City Super Market (1)

Image: Embroiders in Khilgaon Taltola City Super Market (2)

16 | R e p o r t

5. Trip to New Market The embroidery stalls in the second and third floors of New Market are numerous in number.

It seems to be one for the busiest hubs for embroidery making and trading in Bangladesh. The

customers are usually presented with an array of embroidery designs to choose from and then

they can issue orders to the tailors. Most of the tailors who do the embroider work or

Karigors, as they are called by the shopkeepers there, work in locations nearby the stalls in

New Market (such as in the floor above or in a workstation nearby).

The entrepreneurs are now more aware of the rights and satisfaction of their employees and

customers than ever before, partly because of the heightened consciousness and movement of

the labor market regarding their rights and liberty. Secondly, entrepreneurs have realized the

importance of customer satisfaction and updating their products according to customer

demand to meet profit more sustainably. The SMEs here are very competitive as business

here is very saturated. The rush of customers is observed to be quite a lot in New Market.

Customers seem to be very much aware of this place for embroidery. This rush has

encouraged the embroidery designers to be more aware and up-to-date about customer trends

than before.

While entering business entrepreneurs prime concern remains profit making and customer

satisfaction uses to come last in the order while they tend to make the suppliers and

distributors happy to sustain their business in early phase. However, over time the vital

importance shifts to customers, employee and suppliers satisfaction from making profit.

Proper and expert man power is not much available as much as the market requires.

Sometimes, orders may pile up due to a lack of availability of the required expertise for the

work.

Access to finance is not easy as banks remain conservative towards granting loans to SMEs.

The entrepreneurs believe that government should push the banks to be more open and

flexible in this regard.

Work culture is very sound and efficient. The flow from the Karigors to the seller to the

customers is very smooth. Workers craftsmanship is being given more and more importance

over past few years.

17 | R e p o r t

Labor market unrest and different activities play a pivotal role in recognition of the workers

interest and thus determining wages and work hours is a grave issue which ensures perfect

competition in the market. But competition among the SMEs is not necessarily fair at all

times as cases of design theft are at large.

Large strides have been made in technology in machine embroidery according to the

entrepreneurs there but in New Market, handmade embroidery takes more preference to the

customers than machine embroidery work does.

Globalization has a tremendous influence on customer demand as customers are more

concerned about the quality of the output and latest trend in the national and international

market. So they require updating and modifying their product time to time to meet customer

demand which is immensely influenced through this globalization. Some also complained

about foreign products taking up their market such Pakistani Lawns and Indian designer

clothing.

18 | R e p o r t

6. Sustainable Market Enterprise Competitiveness Profit for

Society

Profit for

Value Chain

Actors

Profit for

Employees

Profit for

Customers

Profit for

Owner

Model 1: Sustainable Market Enterprise Competitiveness

1. Profit for Owners

Most entrepreneurs we talked to rated Owners as the most important stakeholders in the

embroidery business. Md. Zakir Hossain, Proprietor of Shourav Fashion Embroidery House,

asked us If I cannot make profit, why would I stay in this business?

19 | R e p o r t

2. Profit for Customers

Customers were also rated as very important stakeholders. The view of the respondents was

that lack of customers would lead to no money. Thus, they need to satisfy the customers in

order to maintain a sustainable business operation.

3. Profit for Employees

Employees might leave if they are not happy. Skilled Karigors are very hard to find in the

embroidery industry. If the employees are unhappy, they may begin to look for other work.

Loss of skilled workers can significantly damage the business and reduce sustainability.

4. Profit for Value Chain Actors

The entrepreneurs we surveyed told us that the suppliers and distributors are very important

for the embroidery industry. Suppliers control the raw materials and if they are not profitable,

it may lead to collapse in the industry. In Joyeeta, the entrepreneurs are dependent on the

distributors to learn about the change in demand. If the value chain actors no longer consider

the embroidery industry as profitable, the industry will be severely damaged.

5. Profit for Society

Md. Zakir Hossain, Proprietor of Shourav Fashion Embroidery House, told us that he

believes that it is not important for embroiders to give back to the society as they are small

entrepreneurs with minimal profit. However, some other respondents replied differently and

said that they try to serve the society in any way they can.

20 | R e p o r t

Organization

Industry

External/Macro

Capital

Capability Culture

Customer

Competition Collaboration

Technology and Innovation

State and Society Globalization of International Business

7. Triple Triangle Framework

Model 2: Triple-Triangle Framework

Organization

1. Capital- The minimum capital requirement to start a small embroidery business is about 1 lac Tk. However, it takes 6-7 lacs Tk to start a larger embroidery

business.

2. Culture- In Mohammadpur, the industry is run by the Bihari families. There is a strong sense of community. In Joyeeta, theres also a sense of bond between the

21 | R e p o r t

female entrepreneurs. However, there appeared to be less of a bond between

embroiders in Khilgaon Taltola City Super Market and New Market.

3. Capability- Embroiders in Bangladesh are capable of designing various types of Saree and other dresses like Salwar-Kamiz, Veil, Lahenga, Shawl, Scart, Maxi,

Bridal veil, Blouse, Panjabi, Fotua, Waist-coat, T-shirt, Sweater, Childs wear

etc.

Industry

1. Customer- The customers of the Embroidery Industry are predominantly women. The success of the industry depends greatly on maintaining customer

satisfaction.

2. Competition- There is fair amount of competition in the Embroidery Industry. However, some respondents complained about unfair pricing techniques by their

competitors that lowers the profit margin of the industry.

3. Collaboration- There is often outsourcing and other types of collaboration in the Embroidery Industry. As small scale businessmen, embroiders depend heavily

on each other to make a profit.

External/Macro

1. Technology and Innovation- The technology in Embroidery is inadequate. The Embroidery process has remained almost same in the past years. However, there

has been significant innovation in the designs to maintain customer satisfaction.

2. State and Society- Embroiders suffer in times of political instability. However, social celebrations like Eid increase their profit significantly.

3. Globalization of International Business- Most of the embroiders we talked to reacted negatively about globalization. Products from foreign countries like

China and India are decreasing their revenue.

22 | R e p o r t

8. Grid of Institutional Mandate

Policy

Advocacy

Knowledge

Business

Development

Services

Networking

Collaboration

Model 3: Grid of Institutional Mandate

1. Policy Advocacy- The entrepreneurs told us that the unions and groups are successful

in advocating suitable policies for them. The Bihari community in Mohammadpur

was very vocal about the lack of support from government organizations.

2. Knowledge- We found that the younger Karigors learnt to do embroidery work from

more experienced ones in the older days. However, lack of interest and profit is

slowly decreasing this passing of knowledge.

3. Business Development Services- Some NGOs provide business training to some extent, but the lack of specialized unions limit the development for the embroidery

industry.

4. Networking and Collaboration- There is networking and collaboration between

embroiders in every cluster. There are trade unions in Joyeeta, Khilgaon Taltola City

Super Market, and New Market for the shopkeepers but nothing specific for the

embroidery industry.

23 | R e p o r t

9. Major Findings As the field work for the report included four different clusters of the embroidery industry,

findings varied to some extent. To understand the situation and conditions of these four

different clusters, major findings from each are listed separately:

9.1 New Market The embroidery stalls in the second and third floors of New Market are numerous in number.

It seems to be one for the busiest hubs for embroidery making and trading in Bangladesh. The

customers are usually presented with an array of embroidery designs to choose from and then

they can issue orders to the tailors. Most of the tailors who do the embroider work or

Karigors, as the shopkeepers there call them, work in locations nearby the stalls in New

Market (such as in the floor above or in a workstation nearby).

The entrepreneurs are now more aware of the rights and satisfaction of their

employees and customers than ever before, partly because of the heightened

consciousness and movement of the labor market regarding their rights and liberty.

Entrepreneurs have realized the importance of customer satisfaction and updating

their products according to customer demand to meet profit more sustainably. The

SMEs here are very competitive as business here is very saturated. The rush of

customers is observed to be quite a lot in New Market. Customers seem to be very

much aware of this place for embroidery. This rush has encouraged the embroidery

designers to be more aware and up-to-date about customer trends than before.

Proper and expert man power is not much available as much as the market requires.

Sometimes, orders may pile up due to a lack of availability of the required expertise

for the work.

Access to finance is not easy as banks remain conservative towards granting loans to

SMEs. The entrepreneurs believe that government should push the banks to be more

open and flexible in this regard.

Work culture is very sound and efficient. The flow from the Karigors to the sellers to

the customers is very smooth. Workers craftsmanship is being given more and more

importance over past few years.

24 | R e p o r t

Labor market unrest and different activities play a pivotal role in recognition of the

workers interest and thus determining wages and work hours is a grave issue which

ensures perfect competition in the market. But competition among the SMEs is not

necessarily fair at all times as cases of design theft are at large.

Large strides have been made in technology in machine embroidery according to the

entrepreneurs there but in New Market, handmade embroidery takes more preference

to the customers than machine embroidery work does.

Globalization has a tremendous influence on customer demand as customers are more

concerned about the quality of the output and latest trend in the national and

international market. So they require updating and modifying their product time to

time to meet customer demand which is immensely influenced through this

globalization. Some also complained about foreign products taking up their market

such Pakistani Lawns and Indian designer clothing.

9.2 Khilgaon Khilgaon Taltola City Super Market holds a large number of embroidery shops on the first

floor. The people over there were working and were pretty busy, but they still took some to

answer our questions.

Most of the people we interviewed didnt have a parent or a grandparent who was a

businessman, and most of them started this business around 10 years ago. The reason

for starting this business was to earn a living, and they choose this industry because it

was easy to set up, cost of starting was low and some entered this because of family

reasons.

Number of people in a shop rarely exceeds 6 these are really small businesses.

Monthly expenditure is under Tk. 1 lac. The business and the industry have been

performing agreeably over the years, but now it is seeing a rapid loss of customers.

The demand for products is entirely dependent on customers, so the businesses

perform poorly when the customers dont come. In times of Eid, Puja or other

occasions they face large orders of clothes, but during the rest of the year they have

comparatively much lower level of work.

The entrepreneurs are in this business to earn a living, so making profit is vital. In

their line if you cant keep customer happy business would wither away, and if you

25 | R e p o r t

dont keep employees they would not perform well, so these two conditions must also

be met. Keeping good relations with suppliers is important but not very much so. And

with businesses of such small size it is difficult for them to serve the society and give

something back. The perceptions regarding these factors has seen some change over

the years, but mostly in customer segment in the sense that they have to keep them

even more happy now since there are now a much wider array of choices available.

The manpower required for this embroidery business is not widely available. In the

older days, employees had apprentices who paid to learn work. Now people are not

interested in working in this sector. The current employees tend to go work for others

if they are paid more, and also tend to switch to other professions.

There is a lot more competition than there used to be. There are more embroiders than

before, and there are so much more shops selling ready-made clothes than before.

There is now availability of more automated machines that can make clothes which

are making embroiders redundant. The competition is fairly ethical, but there are

some complaints of predatory pricing some embroiders selling at a very low price to

lure customers away and drive others out of the market.

The level of technological use for this industry is already at its peak they are using

the best sewing machines (better sewing machines are not made regularly, and there is

also less incentive for doing so). Sufficient finance is available to the entrepreneurs.

They can easily borrow money from banks if they have good relationships with them.

They can also get loans from family or friends to invest in business (which is more

common). They arent a part of any association or chamber, and the industry doesnt

have any association either.

Almost everyone agreed that this is a dying industry, but some say that since demand

is entirely dependent on customers there is still the opportunity to survive if they can

attract sufficient customers. Some say that the flexible nature of the design and quality

of clothes is a major strength.

9.3 Joyeeta Joyeeta is a long envisioned venture of Government of Peoples' Republic of Bangladesh. It is

a platform to support and facilitate the grass root level women entrepreneurs to market their

own arts, crafts and products. It nurtures the cultural heritage of Bangladesh. It has about 30-

40 stalls by women entrepreneurs, arranged in different blocks.

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It is a latest government initiative to promote women entrepreneurs and co-operatives

around Bangladesh. Almost 180 small scale entrepreneurs are able to benefit by

selling directly to end consumers under the banner of Joyeeta. The shopping area,

consisting of two top floors (3rd and 4th floor) at Rapa Plaza, Dhanmondi, opened its

door to the public on November 16, 2011. Various stalls here showcase a wide range

of Bangladeshi handicrafts, food, clothing, fabrics, hand-loom and other traditional

products.

Most of the stalls specialize in exclusive traditional and designer Bangladeshi clothing

which are hand embroidered. As a socially aware business, they are committed to

work with cottage industry weavers, jewelers and artisans to ensure a fairer deal for

them. In future they plan to continue to add new products and bring exclusive designs.

Inconvenient location, as customers do not bother to go up to the top floor of the

shopping mall to make purchases.

Joyeeta does not get much exposure as no marketing initiative has been taken to

increase awareness among people about the existence of Joyeeta. So the business

suffers, even though they offer better quality of products and varied designs than

fashion houses.

They are unable to predict the current market trends which results in huge losses. For

example, an entrepreneur stocked up on fatuas for Pohela Boishakh as part of her

seasonal sale, but trend in the market had shifted to long kurtis or traditional sarees, so

sales was less than expected.

9.4 Mohammadpur At the time of The Great Partition in 1947, a large number of Urdu-speaking Muslim people

migrated from India to the then East Pakistan's territory, which is now Bangladesh. All the

migrated Urdu-speaking Indian people became Pakistani. Many of them had started living in

Mohammadpur area of Dhaka. Since 1971 the community people has almost doubled in

number due to high birth rate in the camps.

There is little economic opportunity for the Biharis in or outside the camps. Jobs in

Bangladesh are scarce, and loans for small business supplies like looms and cloth are

virtually non-existent. A good number of old people have turned to begging and an

27 | R e p o r t

estimated 20,000 unmarried girls are vulnerable to human trafficking and forced

prostitution to make a living.

The embroidery business cluster in Mohammadpur developed mostly because of

livelihood needs and a limited access to other skills and business finance. There were

only a few Mahajons (entrepreneurs) for each of whom about 25- 30 skilled workers

worked day long. They work mostly with personally ordered embroidered clothes and

if the order is any bigger than 30 pieces, they usually outsource it to Savar, where

according to them-theres more manpower and embroidery machines make it cheaper

and faster to perform such medium to large orders.

According to the Mahajons, their employees take the lions share of the pieces the

employees work on. One of the Mahajon said, for example,that if a normal light

embroidery cloth is priced 500 taka, then the employees have to be given atleast 300

taka or in many cases 400 taka.

Entrance of amateur workers at their youth is very limited as the Mahajons usually

prefer already skilled worker over a non-experienced one. Mostly when these people

are very young, 9- 12 years of age, they start to get a hands-on experience with the

craft of embroidery with their parents or with any Mahajons.

Monthly profit varies with the size and type of embroidery crafts the people have

here. It ranges from a mere 6000 taka to about 50,000 taka. The costs of the raw

materials- like thread or chumkis make it harder for them to have an increased profit

margin.

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10. Conclusions and Recommendations Common issues that the embroiders face and our recommendations to tackle the troubles.

1. A significant issue of the embroiders is that they are not paid on time. For some,

payment is delayed for as long as three months. In addition, a large portion of their

accumulated wages is cut off for customer complaints as minor as a missing tiny

bead. We believe that things could have improved if there was a greater legal support,

for the unions of embroiders cannot sufficiently match up to the strength of the owner

associations.

2. The embroiders are not knowledgeable on the latest designs in the fashion

industry. They do work based on the samples or catalogues provided by the

middlemen or fashion boutiques. Hence, the workers cannot do extra business by

selling independently, as they do not have their own designs to sell. The solution to

this is training on latest fashion trends that could be provided on a part time basis

for them, preferably free of cost.

3. The workers complained that if only there could have been a way of getting them in

direct contact with the consumers of their services. They claim that the lack of

awareness is a strong reason behind the customers going to far more expensive places

to get their designs embroidered instead of coming to them.

4. We believe that there should be fairs in WVA, Drik Gallery and such places, where

the stalls could be made free for these artisans to showcase their talent directly to

the customers. The cost of the stalls could be raised through sponsorship or through

food stalls.

5. A number of women in Joyeeta complained about how the government is doing

nothing to stop competition from Indian and Pakistani products. They say that not

much is done to promote Bangladeshi embroidery. There are no advertisings, no

newspaper articles, etc. Even the TV fashion shows feature Indian and Pakistani

clothes. Hence, the demand for embroidery that these women are adept, at are falling

every day, resulting in less fashion houses and individual customers approaching them

than as early as five years ago.

6. A large problem is that these women live in poor environment, mostly slums and lighting conditions is very poor in these places. Hence, they can work only during

daytime and a lot of their free time in evening free time is wasted as they do not have

29 | R e p o r t

access to electricity. Even during daytime, there is poor lighting and working on fine

stitching leads to stress for the workers, which can have long term damage on eyes.

7. The embroiders get a meager fee for their work, which is insignificant, compared to

the price at which the embroidered clothes are sold in the shops. This situation could

be improved if the embroiders had better merchandising skills so that they could

avoid as many middlemen as possible, thereby increasing their share of income. This

could be made possible by providing them training on basic merchandising skills via

part time classes. BRAC and a few other NGOs do provide training, but there is still

scope for greater involvement.

8. Part time training for the workers to train them on all segments of embroidery skills.

For example, some women know only the sewing or hemming, hence they cannot

take orders which involve a combination of appliqu, machine embroidery and hand

embroidery.

9. Multi disciplinary training for the workers, such as candle making, jute bag making

or flower making, so that the workers can switch to another job, or engage part time in

such, should the worker relocate (for example, after marriage, she might move to a

new village).

10. There can be a bar set for the minimum wages paid by the suppliers. For example,

Aarong and Kay Kraft may be asked to pay wages of the workers based on a

percentage of the price of the final product that would be put on display.

Cover pageA Report on the Embroidery Industry of BangladeshFindings, Recommendations, Insights

Draft 0.951. Background1.1 Embroidery1.2 History of Embroidery1.3 Embroidery Industry in Bangladesh1.4 SWOT Analysis of the Embroidery Industry in Bangladesh

2. Trip to Mohammadpur Bihari Camp3. Trip to Joyeeta4. Trip to Khilgaon Taltola City Super Market5. Trip to New Market6. Sustainable Market Enterprise Competitiveness7. Triple Triangle Framework8. Grid of Institutional Mandate9. Major Findings9.1 New Market9.2 Khilgaon9.3 Joyeeta9.4 Mohammadpur

10. Conclusions and Recommendations

Back Cover