Keeping Pace with the Changing Face of Jeans Wear

Profiles from the Heart of La Laguna

amid the desert-like surroundings of Torreon, Gomez Palacio and Cludad Lerdo -- collectively known as Mexico's La Laguna region -- sits a plethora of apparel manufacturing firms, including many of the country's leading jeans wear resources.

For some time now, these producers of denim goods have been following the market's trend toward carpenter, cargo and other fashion-oriented jeans wear styles. The leading firms have realized that to capture the business, they must adapt their production strategies to handle a myriad of styles and finishes.

Some of the region's jeans makers -- Pantalonera Laguna S.A. de C.V., Acabados Textiles Levanderia Industrial S.A. de C.V. (Acatex), Casolco S.A. de C.V. and Grupo Pafer Huichita -- invited Bobbin to tour their facilities for a first-hand look at the results of actions they have taken to increase the capacity and flexibility of their operations.

Pantalonera Laguna Invests in Machinery to Stay Ahead

Pantalonera Laguna S.A. de C.V. is a half package (cutting, sewing and finishing) provider of denim, twill and casual slacks and shorts for men, women and children. The 240-operator company, which has a cut-and-sew capacity of 30,000 garments per week, uses modular systems and sewing lines for garment assembly, and manually operated machines for cutting and spreading.

Pantalonera Laguna manufactures for customers such as The Gap, Old Navy and Mothers Work Inc. In addition to producing for these U.S.-based customers, Pantalonera Laguna manufactures Blitzer brand jeans, a private label for the Mexican market.

Osvaldo Hugo Juarez, general manager for the company, spoke with Bobbin about the importance of investing in automatic machinery. "In the last two or three years we have replaced the older machinery with newer automatic machinery. The new machinery yields higher production and a cleaner garment," he says.

The firm, like others in the region, has been changing its production strategies to meet new demands for more stylish jeans. This adaptation, however, has produced some strain. As Juarez elaborates: "With the styles changing, the pockets [on the jeans] are also changing. Some of the [new] styles cannot be sewn using automatic machines. They are very intricate and have to be done manually; it is almost a craft. This takes more time, but it still has to be done rapidly."

For the future, Pantalonera Laguna plans to continue its investment in modern, specialized machinery to increase production capacity. "We plan on growing steadily and solidly," states Juarez. "We are not interested in rapid growth. With fast growth comes a very fast fall."

Acatex Adjusts to Demand for More Styles, Washes

Acatex is the Torreon-based laundry division of Grupo Fahnos, a conglomerate of companies providing full package services for jeans, shorts and shirts. Of the 2,000 employees of Grupo Fahnos, which manufactures for companies such as Polo Ralph Lauren, some 200 are employed with Acatex.

The laundry operates three shifts, and processes approximately 65,000 garments per week. Equipped with four Tupesa 1,200-pound capacity washing machines, one Washex 600-pound capacity washing machine and one 625-pound capacity Milnor washer, the company does both washing and wet finishing of denim products, including regular washes (for softening), stone washes and stone bleach washes. The firm also uses both enzymes and pumice stones to achieve the different finishes desired by its customers. For drying and finishing, Acatex is outfitted with four industrial dryers and 10 Hoffman pressing machines, including five topper presses and five legger presses.

Since the firm's inception in 1994, Rigoberto Soto, manager at Acatex, says he has noticed a continuous change in the jeans wear that goes through the laundry: "The number of styles has increased. Before, we washed one type of pant with one or two different washes. Now, there are about 20 different pant styles with 10 different washes."

Another trend noted by Soto is the drive -- by apparel firms and the Mexican government -- to be more environmentally conscious of the La Laguna area's water resources. "Water consumption is decreasing," he reports. "The formulas and the chemicals used in the laundry/wet finishing process are being formulated to reduce water consumption."

Casolco Invests in Laundry, Recycling to Remain Competitive

Casolco S.A. de C.V. is another Torreon company that has witnessed first-hand the trend to more fashion-oriented jeans wear. This manufacturer of blue jeans and denim shorts for men, women and children devotes all of its capacity to production for the U.S. market, doing full package work for retailers, including Kmart and Mervyn's, as well as 807 work for other clients, including Chic by H.I.S.

Casolco employs almost 1,300, and manufactures approximately 100,000 garments per week in-house, sending additional production to Torreon-based maquiladora contractors. Finished garments are transported to the firm's EDI-capable warehouse in El Paso, TX, for shipment to customers.

The firm's laundry division, Casolco Finishing Corp., accounts for roughly half of Casolco's overall employment. The division includes two primary areas: a laundry for washing, extracting and drying; and a finishing area that is responsible for attaching metal fasteners and buttons, pressing, quality inspecting, labeling/ticketing and packing for shipment to El Paso. Employees in the finishing area work in 13-member modular teams and are cross-trained to perform all tasks required in the finishing process, from installing trims to pressing and tagging.

With respect to equipment, Casolco's general director Jose Anselmo Martinez emphasizes that he considers the laundry division to be very important and worthy of significant investment. "We have very modern and up-to-date washers that we bought [in 1999]. We recently purchased additional Milnor washers to supplement the laundry," he notes.

With the new additions, the firm is equipped with a total of seven Milnor washers, four Milnor dryers, five Brim washers and five Brim dryers. This setup enables the laundry staff to process up to 200,000 units per week in a variety of washes, including basic stone washes, stone bleach washes and dark stone washes, the latter of which have been very popular lately, Martinez says.

As part of their training, laundry employees are educated in how to monitor the washing process to ensure quality. Moreover, Casolco's major chemical suppliers have provided consultants to train the laundry division's staff on formulas to use for various processes.

Like other apparel manufacturers in La Laguna, Martinez reports that he has seen major changes in customer demand. "The majority of our production is in basic five-pocket jeans. However, we are seeing a trend, especially in children's wear, toward different styles, including carpenter and cargo jeans. Even the fabric and the color of the jeans is changing to include lighter, printed fabrics," he relates.

The need for frequent style changeovers and the overall increase in the number of styles Casolco must produce have presented some manufacturing challenges, Martinez admits, but the company is taking steps to lessen the impact. "The abrupt changes can cause a loss in productivity because the workers get used to one style, and then they have to switch," he says.

To combat this problem, he explains, the company is working to implement modular systems in the sewing room to increase production flexibility.

Like its La Laguna counterparts, Casolco also is aware of the environmental issues of its business, namely the heavy water usage required to perform high-capacity jeans wet finishing. To help conserve the region's resources, the company recently installed a water treatment plant that allows Casolco to recycle 50 percent to 60 percent of the water used in the laundering process. The firm hopes to increase its level of recycling to 70 percent in the near future, says Martinez.

Flexibility key for Grupo Pafer Huichita

Located in the outskirts of Torreon, Grupo Paler Huichita is a family-owned business that got its start in 1976, and has since grown into an empire of 10 sewing facilities, two laundries and two distribution centers. Two suppliers of machinery and spare parts also fall under the group's corporate umbrella, distributing products for such major equipment brands as Paxar AME Reece and Juki Union Special.

The company began exporting to the United States in 1992, and ships 95 percent of its products to the U.S. market. Denim goods, including jeans, shorts, skirts and overalls, account for 70 percent of the firm's total production. The remainder is comprised of jackets, napkins and tablecloths.

Grupo Pafer Huichita does both full package and half package work for clients including Wrangler, The Gap, Old Navy, JCPenney Co., Red Kap (a division of VF Workwear Inc.) and Canada-based Nygard International. In addition, the firm produces its own label of blue jeans, Mission Blues. The company currently devotes approximately 33 percent of its capacity to full package work -- a level general director Felipe Pamanes Fernandez says he hopes will increase to 50 percent or 60 percent this year.

In terms of laundry and finishing capacity, the group operates two businesses -- Lavanderia Mission Blues and Lavanderia Huichita -- which employ a total of approximately 400. Lavanderia Mission Blues performs washing and drying, and is known for its extensive pressing operations, which include permanent pressing and wrinkle-resistant curing capabilities. It is equipped with: two 900-pound capacity Cummings washers; four 400-pound capacity Posenda washers; one 400-pound capacity Milnor washer; one 400-pound capacity American Cascade washer; four 400-pound capacity American Dryer Corp. dryers; 28 Hoffman pressing machines; and a Mahan curing oven. The facility can process up to 50,000 garments per week, and cure up to 900 garments per hour in the Mahan oven.

Lavanderia Huichita is dedicated primarily to washing, and can perform garment washes, stone washes and sand blast washes as well as other types of washes. This facility is outfitted with 14 Hoffman presses, two Paris presses and one Ajax presser, which together press some 95,000 garments per week. For washing, Lavanderia Huichita can process approximately 110,000 garments per week using four 900-pound capacity Milnor washers, two 900-pound capacity Brim washers and two Cummings washers, including an 850-pound capacity unit and a 450-pound capacity unit. The laundry also has two 600-pound capacity Milnor dryers and two 400-pound capacity dryers from American Dryer Corp.

Grupo Pafer Huichita has responded to the current demand for different styling and finishes in the denim market. As Fernandez describes the changes that are driving the transformation of the jeans wear industry: "People get tired of the same basic five-pocket jeans. If you look right now, we are returning back to the 1970s, with embroidery, flowers and butterflies on blue jeans.

"There are also jeans with many pockets, carpenter jeans, any style you can imagine," he continues, adding that lighter-weight fabrics are becoming more popular for jeans.

Fernandez emphasizes that the use of modular production -- implemented in two of the firm's sewing plants -- has been instrumental in achieving the flexibility needed to keep up with the changing face of denim fashions. "An advantage of modular production is a reduction in delivery times," he says. "Also, we can work with smaller quantities of different styles, giving us a great ability to adapt and meet our customers changing demands."

The Big Picture

Indeed, speed and flexibility are now essential to keep pace with changes in the jeans wear industry. As Luis Manuel Espinosa Gutierrez, president of manufacturing firm Marcas de Impacto Mundial S.A. de C.V., explains, you have to learn how to be flexible at the right price--or else. "Lighter fabrics and fashion-oriented jeans are dominating. Either we change [our production] or we die," he concludes. "The changes will continue. We are used to basic jeans, but we have to meet the demand for more fashionable items. If they can offer them for 10 cents or 20 cents less in Central America, even if it takes two or three more days, the customers will go there."

As firms such as Pantalonera Laguna, Acatex, Casolco and Grupo Pafer Huichita continue to invest in their facilities and improve their manufacturing portfolios, it would seem that the La Laguna region's infrastructure will be prepared to support a variety of future demands of the jeans wear market, and maintain its leadership position.

Olga G. West is associate editor of La Bobina.

Editor's Note: La Bobina associate editor Olga West gathered information for this report during a trip to the La Laguna region of Mexico in early December 1999. During her visit, she toured facilities of the denim wear firms mentioned in this article, and met with leaders of the region's apparel industry.

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