Makalot eyes expansion in SE Asia

With flourishing Asian markets, Makalot Industrial Co., a leading garment manufacturing firm in Taiwan, is likely to register a rise of 13.5 percent in its revenues to touch NT$16 billion or US $533.33 million, this year, up from last year’s NT $14.1 billion.

L.P. Chou, Chairman, Makalot, stated that, due to soaring property prices and wage rates, production cost in China is rising exponentially; the firm intends to expand its operations in SE Asian countries like Indonesia, Vietnam and Cambodia to counter this rising cost.

For instance, Makalot recently acquired a 2,160,000 sq ft plot in Indonesia, where it intends to establish six to seven plants in next five years.

The expansion is seen to aid the company’s export to grow from last year’s 98.4 million to 111.6 million garments, this year.

The firm has conventionally been relying on USA as its key export destination, but this year it has decided to boost its exports to the non-US regions by three to five percent. Makalot intends to hike its exports to Asia from current eight percent to 20 percent over the next three years.

Taiwan’s Lative, China’s Metersbonwe and RT-Mart are amongst the main clients of the company, while the company is trying to add a leading garment brand from Japan to this list in 2011, Chou said.