Garmex Saigon Corporation has just announced in their financial report for the third quarter of 2023 that they made a revenue of just VND 73 million during the period.
Company general director, Nguyen Minh Hang, said that the revenue came from their services while they had no orders in the third quarter.
"Although we have slimmed down production activities and laid off more workers, rising rent has added to our costs," she said. "We continued to incur losses of nearly VND11 billion in the third quarter. We'll try to reduce operational costs and consider selling some assets to overcome this difficult time."
Garmex Saigon Corporation reported revenue of VND8.10 billion in the first nine months of this year, down 97 percent compared to the same period last year. The company reported losses of VND 44 billion during the period, compared with losses of VND 6.80 billion in the same period last year.
By the end of September this year, Garmex Saigon only had 37 employees after laying off four workers. That was a sharp cut-off from over 1,900 employees in 2022 and over 3,700 in 2021.
Statistics from the Ministry of Industry and Trade showed that garment exports only brought USD29.10 billion in the first nine months, far below the target of between USD 45-48 billion for this year. Meanwhile, firms predicted that the difficulties may last longer.
Speaking with Lao Dong Newspaper, general director of the Garment 10 Corporation, Than Duc Viet, said that they were seeing falling orders for their most important products of shirts and having to turn to other products to maintain operation.
"Shirts used to make up 60 percent of our orders but now have reduced to 30 percent," Viet said. "We've had to turn to making trousers, polos, and T-shirts to maintain our business. The work-from-home modes to reduce costs in many countries have led to a falling demand for shirts."
Speaking at a recent meeting, chairman of the Vietnam National Textile and Garment Group, Le Tien Truong, said that the market may slightly improve next year but demand will still be between 5-7 percent lower compared to 2022.
"Despite the challenges, there are some positive signs for the coming time including opportunities to source fibre from China or FDI firms producing more clothes in Vietnam using local fibre," he said.
Truong urged local firms to try to overcome this year and make careful plans for 2024 with revenues rising between 3- 5 percent, and profits up by between 85-100 percent against 2023.