The Esquel Group may not be a resounding name to most consumers, but people frequently feel pride in wearing a shirt made by it.
Esquel Group’s uptown clients include Tommy Hilfiger, Abercrombie & Fitch, Hugo Boss, Nike and Polo Ralph Lauren - both for men and women.
Originally a family-owned textile manufacturer in Hong Kong, Esquel has grown to be the world’s biggest cotton shirt maker in the last 30 years.
And the force that drives the “Shirt Making Tiger” is Marjorie Yang, daughter of Esquel’s founder Yang Yuan-loong, and the chairman and former CEO of Esquel Group.
From being an investor working in Credit Suisse First Boston to becoming a cotton farmer in Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, Yang has set a worldwide example using her expertise as a Harvard MBA.
Under Yang’s leadership, the Esquel Group has developed from a small factory with less than 100 workers that only focused on stitching up shirts to being a world class full-service provider for a chain of shirt making (from planting cotton, dyeing, designing and selling shirts) and other value-added services.
Now it’s a multinational group with 47,000 employees and running factories in 10 countries, including China, Jamaica, Malaysia and Sri Lanka, with an annual output of more than 60 million garments, stitching up over $500 million a year in annual sales.
Yang was named as one of the Fortune magazine Top 50 Most Powerful Women in Business four years ago.
Without heavy makeup, the 56-year-old businesswoman prefers to wear jeans during her daily life. But she looks glamorous and invigorated.
Yang says from the very beginning, she has been trying to build an image of Esquel as a quality maker, rather than a price competitor.
Given the ups and downs that the company has gone through in its 30 years, Yang says a lot of the success is due to the confidence and foresight that came from her father - Yang Yuan-loong, a famous textile manufacturer in Hong Kong.
“Thirty years ago, when I walked away from my dream career at First Boston Corporation and helped my family get Esquel off the ground, I was fully confident that the future of Esquel would be bright,” Yang says.
Indeed, in her interview with China Business Weekly, “future” was the most used word when she discussed her leadership.
“Targeting for the future, but implementing right now,” is Yang’s game plan.
Investing in Xinjiang
After establishing Esquel Group in 1970s, Yang’s first strategy tactic drew raised eyebrows within the industry.
She announced she would invest $100 million to buy 12,000 acres of cotton-farming land in China’s remote northwest Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region.
“It was like a huge fall to me at that time, from being a Harvard MBA to a cotton farmer,” she says, smiling.
“(Actually at that time) the Xinjiang farm was seen as a crazy decision by most people. But to ensure the quality of each element of our shirts, I didn’t have any other choice but to build up an integrated operation structure for Esquel and the first step was building a cotton plant,” says the chairman.
The future of China’s textile industry must turn from focusing on lower prices to higher quality, Yang says.
“But the decision was also a source of huge stress for me. As a former investor, I knew it will be hard to see a large return for the $100 million investment in the Xinjiang plant for the next 10 to 20 years,” she adds.
“However, I am fortunate because the company I lead is a family-owned group - I can do anything I decide to do,” Yang says, adding that if her company was a public company, her decision would not have been implemented so easily.
For many years, Yang and her managing team lived with farmers at the Xinjiang plant, educating them how to make higher quality and value-added cotton.
Step by step, Yang has been taking charge of other details of the entire process of shirt making. Yang built a plant in Guangdong province for yarn. And then they got involved in ginning, dyeing, button making and stitching up shirts.
Yang’s “crazy” strategy was soon proved right and unique in the shirt-manufacturing industry. Esquel’s products stood out across all of its product lines.
Yang believes by controlling the entire process she can guarantee a superior product that customers will gladly pay more for.
Furthermore, “we are a one-stop shop,” Yang says. “Customers who choose Esquel must be fully confident of our outstanding service. They don’t worry about the buttons or the cotton, they are always satisfied.”
Yang is equally proud of building a stronger brand image for Esquel’s self-generated brands - PYE and Shirt Stop, which market high-end cotton apparel in China with a flagship luxury retail store in Beijing.
For Yang, after quitting the position as Esquel’s CEO two years ago, something more exciting has just begun: “I’m turning to the venture capital management industry,” she says.
Why shift her focus from making shirts to venture capital management?
Yang smiles calmly and produces another business card that lists her current passion - a partner in Redpoint Ventures, a US-based provider of venture capital management and marketing expertise.
“In today’s highly competitive marketplace, innovation and modern management are not alternatives. If I want to avoid falling behind the youth of the future, the rule I insist on is to keep an open mind to change and learn,” Yang says.
“It is so exciting to learn about the advanced ideas of managing a company. I have to consider how it can be integrated with Esquel,” Yang tells China Business Weekly.
Targeting the future of Esquel and China’s traditional manufacturing industry, it’s increasingly necessary to learn the spirit of managing venture capital, she says.
Now Esquel is engaging in linking its basic pieces together with modern management to help the whole chain achieve its full potential in the world’s textile industry.
“I have never given up the target of making great shirts, furthermore, I will keep doing it in the future,” Yang says, adding that she hopes to build a new industry image for China’s textile industry, from traditional heavy-handed work to part of today’s modern business.
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Esquel’s Path Toward Sewing Success
By Bao Wanxian (China Daily)
29 December 2008
The Esquel Group may not be a resounding name to most consumers, but people frequently feel pride in wearing a shirt made by it.
Esquel Group’s uptown clients include Tommy Hilfiger, Abercrombie & Fitch, Hugo Boss, Nike and Polo Ralph Lauren - both for men and women.
Originally a family-owned textile manufacturer in Hong Kong, Esquel has grown to be the world’s biggest cotton shirt maker in the last 30 years.
And the force that drives the “Shirt Making Tiger” is Marjorie Yang, daughter of Esquel’s founder Yang Yuan-loong, and the chairman and former CEO of Esquel Group.
From being an investor working in Credit Suisse First Boston to becoming a cotton farmer in Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, Yang has set a worldwide example using her expertise as a Harvard MBA.
Under Yang’s leadership, the Esquel Group has developed from a small factory with less than 100 workers that only focused on stitching up shirts to being a world class full-service provider for a chain of shirt making (from planting cotton, dyeing, designing and selling shirts) and other value-added services.
Now it’s a multinational group with 47,000 employees and running factories in 10 countries, including China, Jamaica, Malaysia and Sri Lanka, with an annual output of more than 60 million garments, stitching up over $500 million a year in annual sales.
Yang was named as one of the Fortune magazine Top 50 Most Powerful Women in Business four years ago.
Without heavy makeup, the 56-year-old businesswoman prefers to wear jeans during her daily life. But she looks glamorous and invigorated.
Yang says from the very beginning, she has been trying to build an image of Esquel as a quality maker, rather than a price competitor.
Given the ups and downs that the company has gone through in its 30 years, Yang says a lot of the success is due to the confidence and foresight that came from her father - Yang Yuan-loong, a famous textile manufacturer in Hong Kong.
“Thirty years ago, when I walked away from my dream career at First Boston Corporation and helped my family get Esquel off the ground, I was fully confident that the future of Esquel would be bright,” Yang says.
Indeed, in her interview with China Business Weekly, “future” was the most used word when she discussed her leadership.
“Targeting for the future, but implementing right now,” is Yang’s game plan.
Investing in Xinjiang
After establishing Esquel Group in 1970s, Yang’s first strategy tactic drew raised eyebrows within the industry.
She announced she would invest $100 million to buy 12,000 acres of cotton-farming land in China’s remote northwest Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region.
“It was like a huge fall to me at that time, from being a Harvard MBA to a cotton farmer,” she says, smiling.
“(Actually at that time) the Xinjiang farm was seen as a crazy decision by most people. But to ensure the quality of each element of our shirts, I didn’t have any other choice but to build up an integrated operation structure for Esquel and the first step was building a cotton plant,” says the chairman.
The future of China’s textile industry must turn from focusing on lower prices to higher quality, Yang says.
“But the decision was also a source of huge stress for me. As a former investor, I knew it will be hard to see a large return for the $100 million investment in the Xinjiang plant for the next 10 to 20 years,” she adds.
“However, I am fortunate because the company I lead is a family-owned group - I can do anything I decide to do,” Yang says, adding that if her company was a public company, her decision would not have been implemented so easily.
For many years, Yang and her managing team lived with farmers at the Xinjiang plant, educating them how to make higher quality and value-added cotton.
Step by step, Yang has been taking charge of other details of the entire process of shirt making. Yang built a plant in Guangdong province for yarn. And then they got involved in ginning, dyeing, button making and stitching up shirts.
Yang’s “crazy” strategy was soon proved right and unique in the shirt-manufacturing industry. Esquel’s products stood out across all of its product lines.
Yang believes by controlling the entire process she can guarantee a superior product that customers will gladly pay more for.
Furthermore, “we are a one-stop shop,” Yang says. “Customers who choose Esquel must be fully confident of our outstanding service. They don’t worry about the buttons or the cotton, they are always satisfied.”
Yang is equally proud of building a stronger brand image for Esquel’s self-generated brands - PYE and Shirt Stop, which market high-end cotton apparel in China with a flagship luxury retail store in Beijing.
For Yang, after quitting the position as Esquel’s CEO two years ago, something more exciting has just begun: “I’m turning to the venture capital management industry,” she says.
Why shift her focus from making shirts to venture capital management?
Yang smiles calmly and produces another business card that lists her current passion - a partner in Redpoint Ventures, a US-based provider of venture capital management and marketing expertise.
“In today’s highly competitive marketplace, innovation and modern management are not alternatives. If I want to avoid falling behind the youth of the future, the rule I insist on is to keep an open mind to change and learn,” Yang says.
“It is so exciting to learn about the advanced ideas of managing a company. I have to consider how it can be integrated with Esquel,” Yang tells China Business Weekly.
Targeting the future of Esquel and China’s traditional manufacturing industry, it’s increasingly necessary to learn the spirit of managing venture capital, she says.
Now Esquel is engaging in linking its basic pieces together with modern management to help the whole chain achieve its full potential in the world’s textile industry.
“I have never given up the target of making great shirts, furthermore, I will keep doing it in the future,” Yang says, adding that she hopes to build a new industry image for China’s textile industry, from traditional heavy-handed work to part of today’s modern business.
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