Decreasing textile waste by producing workwear only on demand

When our customers receive their work uniforms manufactured at Lindstrom’s own garment factory, they can trust that it has been prepared with love and care only for them. We currently have our own garment factories in Latvia and India, serving the nearby markets.

As part of our long-term commitment to sustainability, Lindstrom is fighting to reduce textile waste in many ways. One way of doing this is to manufacture workwear based on need only, not on stock, with the ultimate goal of reducing the main stock considerably. Our own garment factories in Latvia and India have been fine-tuned to deliver garments to customers as per the required quantity in the shortest possible time.

An essential part of sustainable operations is that in our own production process – and when auditing our supply chain – we pay special attention to working conditions and employee safety. We believe that our customers and end users are also happy to learn that we take good care of the people who work in our factories preparing the work clothes that they use every day.

The whole point is to manufacture garments based on customer need only

Since 2017, in the beautiful town of Tukums in Latvia, Lindstrom has had something quite unique: our own garment factory, fine-tuned to deliver garments to customers quickly and based on need only. Operations have had a good start and the factory has already expanded by opening two new sewing cells. In autumn 2018, Prodem Latvia was certified in accordance with the ISO 9001:2015 and ISO 14001:2015 standards.

“We have all the elements of success: the best people and the most state-of-the-art facilities you could imagine. The textile industry is a handcraft industry. So 99% of our success depends on having the best people working for us. The rest is automating and optimizing the process and technology,” says Inga Jaakola, Managing Director of Prodem Latvia.

A common task at Prodem is when an existing customer needs a new jacket to replace a damaged one. We are able to fast track replacement orders because we know that the customer needs the new garments as quickly as possible in order to replace the damaged ones. These garments will be cut, sewn, buttoned, folded and packed in one day.

“Our cutting process is virtually fully automated and we try to optimize the use of the cutting machines as much as possible. This

saves us a lot of time and also makes the rest of the process run smoothly,” explains Gusts Dzenis, Cutting Manager, Prodem Latvia.

India Prodem started operations in October 2018

Lindstrom just started its second garment manufacturing factory in Mumbai, India. In the opening ceremony, held in October, Managing Director of Lindstrom India Anupam Chakrabarty emphasized that the purpose of the Prodem unit is to manufacture only what we need and when we need it – thereby supporting a better customer experience.

“Taking sustainability into account, we realise that stocking surplus workwear increases risk and we may end up disposing of textile waste. Using the production-on-demand process, we can eliminate textile waste while offering the best customer experience to our customers. Our dream is to eliminate our main stock entirely. However, this will, of course, take time to become a reality,” Chakrabarty says.

“I’m proud to be associated with starting Prodem operations in India from the initial stage of floor layout planning to machine selection, purchase and installation. It has been a great learning experience for me in terms of project management,” say Bhushan Atale, Sourcing Manager at Prodem India.