Our Mission: A $50 million dollar New York based importer of unfinished woven cotton textiles approached our company for assistance in developing new sources of supply for high volume imports. The company had been importing/sourcing high volumes out of unfinished textiles out of Indonesia and Southeast Asian suppliers since the 1970s and had developed a significant foothold as a supplier of raw materials to the American apparel and home furnishing industries. However, the revolution in information technology, communications, and transportation had turned this once highly profitable business into a fiercely competitive commodity trade. Most of the major Asian suppliers were limiting their export of raw materials, in favor of exporting higher value finished textiles to the world market. The company sought our assistance in expanding their sourcing network by tapping into a little-known middle market of medium-sized Indonesian and Southeast Asian mill suppliers who had, for over a decade, been exporting to European buyers, but had yet to penetrate the US market. Our client’s strategy was to outmaneuver its New York based competitors by using TSI Global Consulting’s on-the-ground local expertise in Southeast Asia to tap into this new, lower-cost, middle market network of raw material suppliers.
Our Research and Implementation Efforts: Over a period of several years TSI Global Consulting negotiated and developed high volume exports from fifteen medium-sized textile mills located in Indonesia, India, and the United Arab Emirates. Our on-the-ground presence in the region served as a unique source of competitive advantage for our client. Based half a world away in New York, our client was able to focus their efforts on developing domestic sales while we spent countless hours investing the necessary time and effort in upfront face-to-face meetings with the management of Asian mill suppliers in order to develop their supply chain.
Results: The new sourcing/distribution chain designed and paved by TSI Global Consulting, fueled new imports for our client in excess of four million dollars per year. Cost and freight (CNF) export prices from our middle-market suppliers averaged 15-20% below prices offered by the large, well-established Southeast Asian mills whom our client and their competitors had been sourcing from since the 1970s. This new sourcing network gave our client a significant cost advantage relative to its competitors who had no access to TSI Global’s supply chain that had been built up organically over a period of several years.
In addition, in recent years we have developed sourcing and distribution channels in Mexico for transnational companies in a range of industrial sectors. Through the use of our Customized Trade Mission and Foreign Market Development services we developed high-level meetings in Monterrey, and Mexico City, Mexico for a major Indiana-based hardware manufacturer that paved the way for their company to enter into high volume “big box” wholesale distribution in Mexico. And our most recent 2019/2020 initiative involved entering into a direct 50/50 partnership with a South African distributor to serve as the exclusive South African distributor for an internationally known tequila and mezcal distillery based outside of Veracruz, Mexico.