HANZHOU, PRC—Hangzhou Yiliao Textile Co., Ltd. finished 2016 with a five percent sales increase, somewhat short of expectations after growing the business 10-20% every year in the last 10 years, according to Mika Ma, principal with his father Shangen. Hangzhou Yiliao sales volume currently stands at $18 Million, he says. It caters to converters and jobbers and some manufacturers. “Business looks softer in 2017 but we will increase our offering of solids and continue to expand our business in the USA and elsewhere. Solid color fabrics bring us good volume,” he points out. Until now, Yiliao has been a low profile, high volume manufacturer of upholstery and window fabrics in natural, synthetic and FR constructions but it is no longer a secret. Yiliao is a key supplier to some important clients worldwide including P/Kaufmann, Barrow and Ashley Furniture, which it sells directly (China to China). Yiliao also sells greige polyester knitted velvet to D’Decor in India, for dyeing there, F&FI learned. The company produces its lines on 20 double width looms, 12 single width looms and 12 dobby looms plus one foil-printing unit. There are nine jacquard looms available for weaving double beam fabric. Mika says Yiliao does woven jacquard, dobby plain, and foil printing. “We do linen looks in polyester and some linen/cotton blends plus 100% polyester chenille plains that we sell super good. Price range is from $2.50 to $4.50,” he says. The Yiliao dobby solids are priced from $2 to $4 per yard; jacquards priced from $3 to $6 per yard and foil printing from $5.95 to $12.95 per yard. Minimums for purchase are 300 meters to 500 meters, depending on the specific fabric. “Mostly we do 50 colors per collection in solids, but we also do some good plains in over 100 colors. We also weave multipurpose goods for drapery and upholstery.” “We buy all the foil paper from Italy. We are the only one in China who has a foil-printing machine; so this side of the business is less competitive. These foil designs are copyrighted or if the customer supplies its own design it will be an extra 2000 Euro for the design cost, but we will refund that amount after producing 5,000 meters for that customer,” he says. “We spend $100,000 each year for designs which we buy from the European market. We have our own design team, and I am the design team director. Together, we develop around 500 new patterns every year.” “Since we are doing an international business, we must follow the global trends, so we buy lots of fashion magazines and interior fabric magazines to get new ideas and understand what’s the design and color trend in the coming year. Yiliao buys its yarn outside the mill and also does dying outside which is typical of most Chinese weavers. “We are just a weaving mill,” Mika explains. Yiliao is a family owned business. Yangen, Mika’s father started Yiliao in 1987, almost 30 years ago but Mika joined the business in 2005, about 12 years ago. Mika started the successful export operation, accounting for 90 percent of sales today. The balance is domestic business in China, he says. “Before I joined Yiliao, my father only did domestic business. We started the oversea business when I joined the company. As part of the export operation, Mika expects to hire more sales agents in different areas. “We keep developing new products every season and continue to send new samples to our sales agents worldwide.” While the USA is the biggest market for Yiliao, Mika continues to work with various sales agents based in the UK, Australia, and Canada. Yiliao only shows at Shanghai Intertextile but Mika plans to be at Heimtextil 2017 in Frankfurt to see what the trends are and see some good friends.