Around The World

Just as a single piece of fabric is made up of many different threads woven together, so the world of embroidery is comprised of countless individuals united by their love for embroidery. In essence, we are one big family.

Not surprisingly, automation and mass production have played a major role in uniting us even further. From country to country, we all use the same machines, the same supplies, the same tools, the same techniques, the same designs, and so on. In other words, it looks like we're becoming more and more alike, but does this really mean we're carbon copies of each other? Not at all; there will always be differences between one embroidery business and another. To find out what some of those difference are, let's visit a few shops in different parts of the world and see what the family is up to.

Fashion & Tourism

Dolly Kang is the owner of D&D, an embroidery house with 450 heads, located in Surabaya, Indonesia. Kang says there are many competitors in the area, and most of her customers request embroidery for fashion and shoes. The company has been in operation for 10 years and employs 125 people. They specialize in producing embroidery for the fashion industry, and their busiest time of the year is August through December.

The company offers quality at a reasonable price, and a substantial amount of revenue is generated via international services. "Our success key and strongest department is in digitizing," says Kang. "We have 10 digitizers who know how to digitize very efficiently since they were trained in [our] high-volume production shop. We have digitizing customers all over the globe utilizing Internet e-mail delivery," she says.

"My background in garment and computer science landed me in this field," Kang explains. "To run a successful shop is quite challenging," she offers. "You must have a basic business sense to keep costs low and manufacture quality products at the price customers expect to pay."

Tropical Impressions N.V., an embroidery company in Aruba, is owned by Assad Nakad. The 38-head company has 10 employees and has been in business for nine years. The company relies on local patronage. Director Jose Lugo claims, "We have competitors, but they are mainly in custom embroidery, so we are somewhat unique because we are 95 percent into wholesale of resort wear embroidery, and 5 percent in corporate logos, personalization, etc."

Lugo says resort wear embroidery for tourists and logos for the local market are the most prevalent types of embroidery in the area. The business sees its share of unique jobs, such as the time they were asked to embroider a logo on a spare tire cover for a 4x4 Jeep. They also have their own digitizing abilities, for in-house only, and offer heat transfer services.

"We like people to know that, for our company, quality and service come first," says Lugo. For any new embroiderer, or anyone running an embroidery business, Lugo suggests they offer quality and the best service. "A satisfied customer often becomes a loyal customer, and there's no better advertisement for your business than the good comments of a satisfied customer - and it's totally free," Lugo says. "Never promise anything to a customer if you are not able to deliver. And if you are in our type of business, where creativity is very important, always try to be a leader and not a follower. Differentiate yourself from your competitors because that is the key to being successful in any competitive market."

Rule Britannia

Dean Roscoe operates a 10-year-old business, Embroidery Punch, in Manchester, England. Digitizing is the company's main service, but occasionally his two machines are kept busy. "I switched to digitizing around two years ago," Roscoe says, "but I still embroider very low volume - specialist embroidery for TV, ad agencies, etc." Roscoe's most unusual order was an astronaut's space suit for a well-known movie.

Corporate logos, school wear and club logos are the area's most requested work, and an embroidery business in his area is not unique. "There are small, medium and large embroidery businesses based nearby, but I have no competition because I only digitize." There is no seasonal rush for Roscoe, who claims, "I am busy all of the time!" And although digitizing is the company's main service, Roscoe does not offer stock designs. "Everything is custom and belongs to my clients," he says. Additionally, Roscoe's company offers a graphic design service to clean up bad artwork and re-work designs so that they are suitable for embroidery. "Our designer can also create logos to meet the client's requirements," he says.

Operating via his Web site, Roscoe digitizes for clients based in Europe and America. "By utilizing the power of the Internet, we are able to provide the professional embroiderer with an uncomplicated and speedy solution to digitizing requirements," he says. He has observed that the U.S embroidery community is very different than that of the U.K. "In the U.K, there are hardly any retail outlets. Our embroiderers are based in industrial units and workshops. There is very little communication between embroiderers, and there is certainly not the trust and friendship that I read [about] on the U.S. (e-mail) lists," he says.

Africa's Embroidery Jungle

Neville Gabriel Appanna of E-Fect Promotion in Durban, South Africa, has been working in the embroidery industry for 17 years. Thirteen of them he was employed by a local company. He now runs an independent digitizing service, specializing in corporate work and some fashion embroidery design. "I'm currently just working on my own, but with enough work to expand," he explains. "To excel, some degree of high focus needs to be maintained, so, although I'm also an artist and can assist with that, sometimes I concentrate mostly on digitizing." He promises reliable service, as well as assistance or advice. "It's important for people to know that businesses run with heart and soul make every referral a gem, and it's good for any business to be rich in those kinds of gems."

Appanna is involved mostly with custom digitizing and plans to eventually add online sales of stock designs. "I actually enjoy the international ethic; therefore, I have zero local clientele," he says. "I have the absolute minimum in client problems, and the maximum faith in my U.S. agent. I'm a firm believer in referrals because that immediately allows a new client to enter into a new arena with some degree of confidence and trust, and the better your referral, the more successful your business can be, regardless of globalization."

Digitizing currently keeps Appanna too busy to add embroidery services, and he implies that the decision to do so in his area might not be profitable. "Competition is fierce here, and very much a rat race," he says. "The local market is a high degree of fashion embroidery. It's mostly an anything goes environment with maybe a thread of respect for copyrights of major brand names; a lot is done illegally," he reveals. "Of course, it's not that way with all companies. Some are very respectable and conduct very ethical businesses," he says reassuringly.

You Can't Fight Progress

Appanna says, "Free trade agreements with no special controls have resulted in the markets being saturated with outside products, resulting in the closure of many local manufacturing businesses, which has had a serious impact on the embroidery sector. I think it'll take some great innovations and technical genius to save the local markets from extinction because most directors of embroidery companies here come from an older generation, and when it comes to Internet marketing, it is unfamiliar territory."

While many people have computers, Appanna laments, "a large percentage of Africa is computer illiterate. Things like online shopping are beginning to take off here, but, because the general infrastructure does not yet cater to the masses, there are limitations." The older generation of embroiderers is especially skeptical of new trends, such as the Internet, he says, "so they slowly fall by the wayside when it comes to advancement."

Another change South African embroiderers face is the recent proliferation of embroidery shops. Appanna reports, "Ten years back, there were as few as five companies in the same space. There are now about 50 embroidery shops within a 1,215-mile radius, with approximately just five or six places being the major concerns. "The relationship among larger companies is almost warlike, with a fierce tension when it comes to clientele," says Appanna. "This has resulted in clientele calling the shots when it comes to pricing, rather than the embroiderer being able to quote [prices], which is why it's important for embroiderers to protect their markets.