San Miguel Petapa, Guatemala (March 14, 2019) – Tata Accessories Globales, the world’s largest men’s and women’s belt factory, is rapidly expanding its footprint and production capacity to meet the growing demand for accessories’ top performing category. High margins and fast turns coupled with minimal display space requirements make this classification an attractive opportunity for brands and retailers.
Founded in 1985, and tangible success in the belt business, Tata embarked on a major expansion in 2018. “Due to our success over the last few years, we are increasing our facility footprint by 30%, nearly doubling our workforce, and exploding our annual production capacity to 18 million belts,” says Rodrigo Toledo, President of Tata. Tata’s customers include many of the largest retailers and brands in the world.
To meet increasing demand, Tata has invested heavily in state-of-the-art equipment and new technologies that improve quality, speed up production and reduce costs. The implementation of SAP Business One, and Blue Cherry Shop Floor Control will contribute to increasing productivity by 30% and expanding the work force to over 1,000 employees.
Tata is an affiliate of Randa Accessories, one of the world’s largest fashion accessories companies. “Tata provides our retail and brand partners with a competitive advantage,” states Judy Person, EVP & group president of Randa Accessories. “Equally important, Tata provides our consumers with a great product with an amazing price/value proposition.”
Tata is providing a solution for North American-based retailers, brands and importers seeking to claim the benefits of nearshoring. Manufacturing in Guatemala takes advantage of the Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) incorporating no duty or tariffs when imported into the United States. In addition to the financial benefits, Tata improves speed-to-market by reducing transit time to one week versus four, or more, weeks from Asia. Operating on Central Standard Time (CST), Guatemala’s proximity to the US also allows for real time communication.
This expansion investment provides Tata and Randa Accessories partners with a complete end-to-end supply chain for leather goods, increased speed-to-market, unique access to Mexican, Central and South American tanneries and reduces supply chain risk.
“Belts mean money,” says Meredith Travers, senior vice president of Randa Accessories belt division. “Belts are a high turn, high margin, small footprint classification. In only one square foot of selling space, a store can present belts in many size, color combinations. Tata is the fastest, highest quality supplier of belts in the world.”
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ABOUT TATA
Tata customers span the globe and include a powerful portfolio of major retailers, importers and international brands. Guatemala-based Tata provides many advantages: as the largest economy in Central America, Guatemala offers a stable base with abundant natural resources, a large labor force and a variety of modern transportation options including ports in both the Atlantic and Pacific. Please visit https://tataaccessories.net/ for more information.
ABOUT RANDA
Randa is one of the world’s largest accessories companies, spanning 11 countries, with a portfolio of 50 brands and over 100 years of experience. From sketch to scale, across four extraordinary product divisions, Randa produces exceptional products and services worldwide, delighting customers and making partners successful. Please visit https://www.randa.net/ for more information.