Classic Fashion Apparel

The Company started functioning in the Al-Hassan Industrial Estate, the world’s first Qualifying Industrial Zone, in Ramtha, near Irbid city, in Jordan, during the warm early summer, in June 2003, when flowers were still in bloom. The climate was clement like the favorable investment climate in Jordan. There were just 300 employees and 130 machines, making garments worth 2 million US dollars in the first year. There were several hurdles in the path of Classic Fashion right from inception, but the well-proven method of Sanal Kumar of taking the charging bull by the horns proved always successful. There was a recession in the US from December 2007 to June 2009, for a period of 18 months. During this period, there was a global recession from the 3rd quarter of 2008 to the first quarter of 2009, spanning 9 months. All the countries, especially those that had business relations with the US, like Jordan, suffered the effects. The garment manufacturing sector of Jordan was one of the very few business sectors that withstood the recessional impacts and Classic Fashion was in the fore-front of this resistance. Presently, as the largest apparel manufacturer in the MENA region, with a turnover of $ 610 million, Classic Fashion contributes over 30% of all the garment exports of Jordan, producing 450, 000 to 500, 000 garments per day, with an average run of 200 styles per month. A well-satisfied workforce of 30,000 from various countries operate 16,000 machines, in 12 factories and 7 satellite units, to produce about 100 million garments annually according to the figures for 2019. The estimated output for 2020 is 120 million. Birth of the Satellite Unit Though the Jordanian economy is consistently on the path of growth, unemployment among the rural population continues to be a persistent problem. Government realised that poverty could not be addressed sustainably without increasing the working population by creating more jobs for Jordanians. This was especially true in the case of women. The participation of women in the labor force was below 15%. The idea of starting satellite units in remote rural areas was part of the solutions put forward by Better Work Jordan, followed up by the Government of Jordan and implemented by a few companies like Classic Fashion. However, families were reluctant to send their daughters to faraway places like the industrial zones and most of the factories were, and still are, in the Qualifying Industrial Zones. Apart from the mobility constraints and social taboos against working women, what made women reluctant to come to garment factories was the general presumption that it is a low-status job and that the migrant people working in the factories were of lower social ranking. Step by step, the hurdles were brought lower and made surmountable. People from remote rural areas with unemployment problem were brought to the factories of Classic Fashion and shown the working environment and the nature of work of the employees there. When the baseless and false notions of the rural Jordanians about the working conditions were removed, they began to come to the newly started satellite units. After the successful start of the first satellite unit in Ajloun, a remote mountainous area with most of the women folk unemployed or underemployed, Classic Fashion started 6 more satellite units in rural areas where unemployment was high. All 7 satellite units function profitably and smoothly with 90% female employees. Most of the workers and more than 50% of the supervisory staff are Jordanians. Slowly, but surely, the satellite units have become hubs of societal transformation making essential changes in the outlook and lifestyle of the common folk. They enhance the self-reliance and economic empowerment of the local people, as their earning power and gainful skills have increased. The initiative also has gone a long way in accelerating the socio-economic progress of the community and the country as a whole.