To be closer to our customers in different regions, we have our own manufacturing units, called Prodems, in Latvia, Hungary, and India. This also allows us to produce garments based on customer demand – in just the quantities needed and with a short lead time from order to delivery. Our Prodems can flexibly produce a wide range of workwear, with this product range increasing all the time. Our main objective is to reduce our stock considerably, improve operational efficiency, and decrease textile waste.
Our Prodems proved to be a great asset for our customers during the turbulent COVID-19 pandemic. In early 2020, when COVID-19 was mainly spreading only in China, we were able to move production from China to our Prodems in Europe to secure the continuous supply of garments, and to enhance our readiness to react to the heightened uncertainties of customer demand.
Slightly later in the year, we started seeing rapid changes in customer demand for certain product groups. Demand for specific healthcare products jumped almost overnight. Through our European Prodems we were able to react quickly to these sudden increases and fulfill our customers’ needs in a relatively short time.
Prodems also played a central role in our face mask service launch during Spring of 2020. Depending on our clients’ specific needs, our Prodems are ready and able to produce more than 1000 different products and over ten size versions per each product on very short notice. For example, our Prodems delivered over 30,000 additional healthcare garments above their normal production rate just during March-April 2020, after the sudden and unexpected increases in demand. Overall, during 2020, our European Prodems produced 157,000 much-needed face masks.
