WORLD’S BIGGEST BELT FACTORY GETS BIGGER

Tata Accessories Globales, the world’s largest men’s and women’s belt factory, is rapidly expanding its footprint and production capacity to meet the growing demand for accessories’ top-performing category.

Founded in 1985, and tangible success in the belt business, Tata embarked on a major expansion in 2018. “Due to our success over the last few years, we are increasing our facility footprint by 30 percent, nearly doubling our workforce, and exploding our annual production capacity to 18 million belts,” said Rodrigo Toledo, president of Tata. Tata’s customers include many of the largest retailers and brands in the world.

To meet increasing demand, Tata has invested heavily in state-of-the-art equipment and new technologies that improve quality, speed up production and reduce costs. The implementation of SAP Business One, and Blue Cherry Shop Floor Control will contribute to increasing productivity by 30 percent and expanding the work force to over 1,000 employees. 

Tata is an affiliate of Randa Accessories, one of the world’s largest fashion accessories companies. “Tata provides our retail and brand partners with a competitive advantage,” said Judy Person, EVP and group president of Randa Accessories. “Equally important, Tata provides our consumers with a great product with an amazing price/value proposition.”

Tata is providing a solution for North American-based retailers, brands and importers seeking to claim the benefits of nearshoring. Manufacturing in Guatemala takes advantage of the Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) incorporating no duty or tariffs when imported into the United States.  In addition to the financial benefits, Tata improves speed-to-market by reducing transit time to one week versus four, or more, weeks from Asia. Operating on Central Standard Time (CST), Guatemala’s proximity to the U.S. also allows for real time communication. 

This expansion investment provides Tata and Randa Accessories partners with a complete end-to-end supply chain for leather goods, increased speed-to-market, unique access to Mexican, Central and South American tanneries and reduces supply chain risk.

“Belts mean money,” added Meredith Travers, senior vice president of Randa Accessories belt division. “Belts are a high turn, high margin, small footprint classification. In only one square foot of selling space, a store can present belts in many size and color combinations. Tata is the fastest, highest quality supplier of belts in the world.”