I established this company in 1980, inspired by the experiences of my father’s business that sold zippers, thread and garment accessories. Based out of North Sumatra, his store typically had to wait for a period of up to three months to receive an order of zippers. This caused us to consider whether it would be possible to speed up the process by producing our own zippers, and we eventually set up our own manufacturing company that initially operated as a family business. After relocating the company from Medan to Jakarta, we developed our manufacturing capabilities by first working with imported semi-finished products from Taiwan that we assembled. Building upon this foundation in which we had 50 employees working in a small three floor building in Jakarta, we have expanded over the years and now employ more than 1,000 workers at our 11-hectare factory in Tangerang.

My background in mechanical engineering serves as the basis for our company’s focus on machinery and the use of the latest zipper manufacturing technology. Our strategy to always improve upon our production quality and efficiency has seen us import equipment from Taiwan, Japan and Germany that we modify to best suit our production process. We are also active in providing training and know-how to our local workforce to create skilled technicians able to adapt to and implement new zipper manufacturing techniques.

Rising salaries and government action to curb pollution by shutting down electro-plating and dyeing companies in China has led to the projection that Indonesia will become the base for garment manufacturing serving markets in the ASEAN as well as Asia Pacific. This bodes well for existing local zipper companies and there are presently two major players in Indonesia, our company and YKK. A rise in the number of garment manufacturers in the country will create many new opportunities for companies producing zippers because these garment companies will look for local suppliers for accessories, and based on this, we see very bright prospects for the future of Indonesia’s zipper manufacturing industry.

There are opportunities to be taken advantage of across the country, particularly as rising consumer purchasing power here creates new demand for our higher-grade products. The emerging local market for quality garments presently has us focused on serving local businesses, and this will be our priority going forward.

Turkey has substantial potential as a market for our zippers, given that the country - like Indonesia - is becoming a popular manufacturing hub for garments. Peru, Egypt, Pakistan and India also present interesting opportunities.

There is not much scope to serve developed markets such as the US and those in Western Europe because high labour costs mean that garment manufacturing activities are limited. As such, we are focusing our strategy on supplying garment manufacturers in Indonesia that serve international brands and in this regard are more involved in indirect exports.

Our company has aimed to diversify through the introduction of creative products that tap into our existing expertise in zippers. For example, we recently launched a line of pouches that can be unzipped for more convenient storage when not being used and have already been exported to Singapore. Our plans for the future will thus involve a more concerted move into downstream products such as this. In this regard, we are open to input from our customers around the world to create products suited to unique specifications and requirements.

We are very much a company driven by innovation; as previously mentioned, our ongoing development is dependent on the implementation and modification of new machinery. At the core of this strategy is our desire to move towards automated manufacturing so as to lessen our vulnerability to fluctuations in the cost of labour in Indonesia. We are also looking to adapt our production capabilities to cater to the needs of international markets that now pay more attention to the use of non-hazardous materials. To meet European standards, in 2012 we obtained Oeko-Tex Standard 100 certification for our zipper products.

Our company has an open policy when it comes to working with other companies, and is therefore interested in collaborating with prospective foreign partners for the future. We already work with an international brand that previously used to import their zippers from China before coming to the realisation that they could avoid lengthy delivery times by initiating a joint venture with a local company. We are most interested in working with foreign companies that have already been nominated by international brands, to whom we can provide our extensive manufacturing capabilities. The involvement of foreign partners able to bring in capital and new technology is needed to facilitate our ability to serve the more than 3,000 garment manufacturers in Indonesia that currently still need to import accessories.

We hope that GBG Indonesia can showcase Fajarindo Faliman Zipper to its network of international readers and reach out to prospective partners in markets such as China. It is important to have a close understanding of the local market before entering, and working with a local partner such as us can fulfil this need.