Preslow Moved Their Manufacturing Business away from Asia and Back into Mexico

By Mexico Daily Post

Preslow is a retail apparel manufacturer. The company, which makes uniforms and corporate apparel, chose Lectra to help move manufacturing away from Asia and re-shore more production back into Mexico.

Preslow, which counts Walmart as one of its biggest customers, had to rethink its supply chain when the pandemic disrupted workflows around the world.

Preslow’s Tizayuca, Hidalgo-based plant is one of the most important for the firm.

“We were hit hard in 2020 because orders were being canceled and it was all a mess,” Isaac Presburger, Preslow’s sales manager, said in a news release.

Before 2020, around 40% of the outerwear Preslow produced was made overseas; now that number has fallen to about 20%. Preslow is making more of its apparel at its Mexico City factory — an estimated 1 million garments a year — using Lectra’s software and hardware.

Leonard Marano, president of the Americas for Lectra, stated that when manufacturers are closer to their customers, they can help them to save money through production flexibility.

“When you’re close to the end markets, you don’t have to mass produce at the level that you have before. You could do smaller runs, which means the likelihood of you selling more of your product run completely, rather than having to write it off,” Marano said.

“It allows you to have a quicker time to market, whether it’s apparel with a new shirt style or a new season coming out, whether it’s a new piece of furniture, or style of furniture that’s on trends, or the latest platform from one of the automotive OEMs. Having closer production to where it’s ultimately going to the consumer, it ends up being more sustainable and more profitable.”

Among Lectra’s client base, Mexico, parts of Central America, and locations in the Caribbean have been the main beneficiaries of nearshoring so far, Marano said.

“We see it in Mexico, a lot in furniture and also apparel, as well as very heavily in automotive,” he said. “We also see it in areas like the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico; we’ve seen a big increase in Central America, as well.”

This article was published in Mexico Daily Post August 14, 2023. Lectra is a member of SPESA.

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