The growing presence of unlicensed hosiery manufacturers has become a cause for concern for licensed producers, says the secretary of Tehran Union of Hosiery and Yarn Producers and Salespeople.
Mohammad Kamalabadi added that these producers do not pay the legal fees to the government and are free to sell their products at cheaper prices. “This would eventually drive out well-established producers from the market,” he warned.
On the size of domestic sock manufacturing business, Kamalabadi told Forsat-e Emrooz daily that around 1,100 licensed manufacturing centers are active in Tehran and that each of them needs to have at least four knitting machines.
“Each of these machines produces 12 dozen (144) socks every day. All in all, a huge number of socks are manufactured every day but we need to bear in mind that 80 million people are the potential customers of these socks,” he said.
Parviz Sherafati, hosiery manufacturer, said, “Today, Iran’s hosiery sector is grappling with recession and the storehouses are overflowing with socks and similar items. This is while there are export markets for Iranian socks in the neighboring countries but we failed to maintain our hold on their markets and handed them over to Turkey and China.”
Sherafati referred to lack of careful planning and fine quality raw materials as the main problems facing producers who wish to export their products and said it’s better to upgrade marketing and improve the quality of packaging.
“We must learn from past experiences to ensure an improved future for our business,” he said.
Socks have always been a basic commodity and demand should not change that much from one year to the next.
“So the only way to generate more sales is to come out with some new style or new packaging to revive the market,” he concluded.
