Quicker to Market
March 31, 2010 Denim is big business for Plains Cotton Cooperative Association (PCCA), a farmer-owned marketing cooperative headquartered in Lubbock, Texas, USA. “We’re vertically integrated from the cotton field to manufacturing denim fabric to sewing jeans,” says Wally Darneille, President and CEO of PCCA.
PCCA has been in the denim business since 1987 when it purchased American Cotton Growers (ACG) from another farmer-owned cooperative. Now a part of PCCA’s Textile and Apparel Division, ACG is a state-of-the-art denim manufacturer capable of producing 36 million linear yards of denim annually — enough to make 20 million pairs of jeans — at its plant in Littlefield, Texas. “We have open end and ring spinning equipment, plus core spinning for making stretch yarn,” Bryan Gregory, vice-president of denim manufacturing notes.
In March 2009, PCCA took another giant step up the value chain with the acquisition of key assets of Koramsa Corp., including a cut and sew denim plant in Guatemala City, Guatemala which has been renamed Denimatrix LP. Heading the subsidiary as president is Carlos Arias.
Denimatrix produces jeans for a number of major companies in a plant that features some of the newest technologies including a non-water washer and lasers for producing distressed jeans. “We just recently installed the G2 washer from Jeanologia which uses ozone instead of water. It is expensive technology but it is appealing from an environmental standpoint because it uses no water or chemicals. The process starts with ambient air and ends with ambient air,” Arias explains.
“It’s kind of ironic that it takes 17 minutes to make a perfect pair of jeans and 35 minutes to rip holes into them,” adds Darneille. “The designer wants holes in the jeans and the holes must be in the same place and look the same on every pair. The lasers allow us to do just that.”
Being vertically integrated has significant advantages. “We’re able to shorten the production cycle,” Jack Matthews, vice-president of denim marketing points out. “ACG takes four to five weeks to spin and weave cotton into cloth. Add a week for shipment from Littlefield to Guatemala City. Denimatrix can cut, sew and ship finished jeans in two weeks. That’s 71/2 weeks. It would take four weeks alone to ship cotton to a textile mill in Asia.” The shortened cycle allows potential buyers in the Western Hemisphere to adjust more quickly to changes in market trends. “It is our niche,” Arias says.
“And recession emphasizes the value of a shorter response time,” Darneille adds. “Everyone is interested in keeping inventories low and having more turns. This allows buyers to react more quickly to changes in the market and avoid deep discounts to move stock. They don’t want a supply chain that is 6 months long.”
photo:
Wally Darneille
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