Unifi and REPREVE®

Unifi Manufacturing, Inc. is a leading producer of multi-filament polyester and nylon textured yarns and related raw materials. We provide innovative, global textile solutions and unique branded yarns for customers at every level of the supply chain.

Unifi develops specialty yarns that provide performance, comfort, aesthetic and other advantages.And their latest introduction is REPREVE®, made from recycled material. And because REPREVE® is made from 100% recycled materials, it offsets the need to use new crude oil, conserving our precious natural resources and energy.

There is the SWOT analysis of the REPREVE® brand：

Internal Factors

Strength

• The leader position in recycled fiber market
• Advanced recycled material transfer technology
• Good brand concept of sustainability and energy saving
• Traceable and transparent of the recycled fiber (ensured by the U Trust™ verification program of the company )
• Capability to provide customers with an extensive array of sustainable solutions

It’s no doubt that Unifi’s leader position in the market benefits the development of REPREVE® brand a lot.

A 50,000 square foot Repreve recycling center is build in Yadkinville, North Carolina, where plastic bottles, fiber waste and fabric scraps get deposited. In the recycling center, PET bottles purchased from other recovery facilities will be sorted and filtered using multiple processes to ensure that only the proper, high-quality bottles are kept for the fiber production. The recycling center also helps the build up of product traceable and transparent.

Weakness

• High investment in the production line (high-tech material transfer machines，raw-material transportation ).
• Poor connection with customers.
• Price.

More than $28 million investment is put into the construction of the Repreve recycling center, in order to expand production capabilities and support volume growth.“The facility will increase its recycling capacity to 72 million pounds annually from 42 million pounds, the Greensboro, N.C.” said by the company in 2014. Then in 2016, Jay Hertwig, the vice president- global marketing of Unifi, indicated that the recycling center plans to increase annual production to about 100 million pounds by next year. More jobs would be added by the expansion which will lead to increasing labor cost.

In addition, it seems like the brand fails in building connection with simple consumers even the brand has its own social network accounts, such as twitter and Instagram. Because the brand doesn’t has any price advantage when comparing with products made from simple fibers, it requires more consumer recognition if the brand want to win in the consumer based market.

External Factors

Opportunities

• Partnership with popular consumer brands such as The North Face, ROXY and so on.
• Increasing awareness of sustainability (government support and consumer awareness).
• Increasing market share of Polyester fibers.
• Potential cooperation with other high-quality material recycle company.

In these years, the brand enhanced its cooperation with famous consumer brands. The partnership brings REPREVE® more chances to speak with the consumers and promote brand equity development.

“The global polyester fiber market poised to surge from USD 73.5 Billion in 2014 to USD 115.0 Billion by 2020.”

The expansion of polyester fiber market provides the recycled polyester more room for further development.

CarbonLITE is one of the largest producers of food-grade Post-consumer Recycled PET in the world. We specialize in processing used plastic bottles into bottle-grade PET resin flakes and pellets that can then be used to manufacture new plastic beverage bottles and other products.

If REPREVE® can cooperate with recycle facilities like CarbonLITE, the brand would be able to speed up the fiber production and meet the increasing requirements of its customer brands.

Threats

• Average consumers’ attitudes towards recycled material (quality and price concerns).

Most consumers know so little about recycle process and always doubt about the product safety of those made from the recycled materials. They may still choose the simple products when they cannot see too much difference in their prices.

Summary

The SWOT analysis is a very useful tool that helps a company carve a sustainable niche in the market.

The analysis provides REPREVE® the chance to find a balance point between its strength and weakness. The potential opportunities offer the brand with solution to deal with its weakness when the threats remind it taking advantages of the strength. For example, it may be the time for REPREVE® to promote its consumer connection with the consumer brands’ assistance; and advertise the product advantages by its production transparency.

Reference