Profit with purpose

Now approaching his 11th year at Ever Shine Tex, Director Michael Sung was entering new territory when he joined the Indonesian synthetic textile manufacturer in 2015. He had previous experience in finance and consulting, but this was his first foray into the textile industry.

Sung immediately threw himself in at the deep end, determined to make an early impact in a company undergoing a major ownership transition. But it was six years later that the most transformative point of his leadership would arrive, taking Sung and the company on a completely new path.

“The biggest tipping point I would say happened in 2021, during the COVID-19 pandemic,” Sung tells The CEO Magazine. “That’s when our sustainability journey began.”

During a period of great reflection for millions across the globe, Ever Shine Tex realized that to guarantee the long-term success of its business, it had no choice but to embrace sustainability.

“This has been the main focus and driver for us – to actually make our textiles sustainably,” Sung explains.

“What we found out after we started this journey is that investing in sustainable manufacturing is a win–win solution in the sense that it helps reduce the carbon footprint of our products and manufacturing, while also increasing our profitability because it reduces our cost as well.”

Despite the recent wave of insurgent populist politics that has sought to normalize climate cynicism, Ever Shine Tex has not wavered in its convictions.

“Sustainability has been our strategy for the past five years and will be for at least the next decade,” Sung says firmly.

The next stage

As well as crediting its green shift for its recent success, Sung also identifies its focus on the domestic market rather than on international growth as a strategic win.

“Ever since the pandemic, when our exports were disrupted, we switched to selling primarily to our domestic market,” he says.

“I believe that there are still many opportunities in the Indonesian market. Indonesia is the fourth biggest country in the world and I feel the past decade or so it hasn’t been a big focus for the government. A lot of the Indonesian market has been cannibalized by Chinese products.”

With its renewed model, however, Sung is presenting Ever Shine Tex as a credible, local alternative to the dominant Chinese players.

“Having sustainability on our side and being able to reduce our costs significantly, now we’re able to compete with Chinese goods in Indonesia,” he says.

“As part of the Indonesian industry we would prefer for the customers – the Indonesian market – to get their goods locally instead of having to import. This is a key part of our growth strategy for the next decade at least.”

Despite Sung’s desire to build a homegrown business that serves its local market, he cites the business regulations in Indonesia as a central obstacle to his vision.

“In Indonesia, the regulations are not very supportive of industries. The Indonesian government supports exports, but doesn’t really support local industries,” he reflects. “So that’s a big elephant in the room that hasn’t been discussed.”

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And it’s not only government decisions taken nationally that are impacting the company outlook.

“We also never expected, for example, Trump to have tariffs last year and then to have this war this year,” he says. “Even though I’m trying to consolidate my sales to not be affected by global issues, it suddenly becomes a global issue because of the geopolitical situation.

“The rise in raw materials causes a lot of disruption in the supply chain, which was not in the picture during the planning of our vision strategy.”

Embracing innovation

Like many successful companies, Ever Shine Tex reacts to challenges by innovating.

“The pandemic made us realize that there is still a lot of room for us to actually optimize that further,” he says. “We achieved this via process innovation – creating greater efficiency without sacrificing the end product quality. If we’re able to modify or reduce our processes, we try to do that.”

Partly due to the demands of rising costs, Sung explains that the company has learned to embrace creative solutions wherever possible.

“The second type of innovation that we’ve made is the modification of the machinery,” he says. “For example, most of the machinery is very robust, but probably their electrical and mechanical components are outdated.”

In response, the company has upgraded their internal computers and motors, which has drastically reduced electrical consumption.

“It’s not a significant investment, but it has a large impact in terms of the costs and emissions,” Sung says.

Key partnerships

Also providing a significant impact to Ever Shine Tex are its crucial network of key partners, without whom innovation would not be possible.

“We team up with a lot of strategic partners and these are the people who actually invest in us,” Sung says.

This includes chemical dying specialists JINTEX Indonesia.

“They are in essence helping us reduce our cost, since they are holding the capital burden,” he reflects.

Crucial to the most successful associations, according to Sung, is a shared worldview.

“I think why we work so well together and why we are able to bond is because we’re both basically working for the same vision,” he explains. “Our strategic partners are trying to reduce global emissions through their businesses as much as possible and that’s what we are also trying to do.

“It’s this kind of synergy and symbiosis that’s really helping both of us. It’s always a win–win for both parties.”

Looking forward, he wants to encourage companies to join the company’s network of climate-conscious operators.

“Sustainability and innovation is the only way that we can drive our companies forward,” he says.

“People are afraid that sustainability is very expensive. It’s not. I think that’s the wrong mindset. Once you commit to the vision of long-term sustainability, it’s very easy to actually make your company grow.”