Pairs of tights from the Montreal company Sheertex have a reputation for resisting everything — even relocation, a trend that seems inexorable in the textile industry. To maintain its activities here, the company is banking on robotization, a strategy that caught the eye of Investissement Québec.
The Sheertex spools are running at full speed. The arrival of cold weather and the holiday season marks the busiest time of the year for the company’s sales. At its Pointe-Claire factory, along the Trans-Canada Highway, hundreds of boxes filled with tights are waiting to be shipped to Costco and H&M, two retailers with which Sheertex has been doing business recently. In October, the Montreal manufacturer also joined forces with the SKIMS brand, owned by American celebrity Kim Kardashian.
“This is a big step for us,” said Sheertex founder and CEO Katherine Homuth. These new partnerships represent increased visibility for the company, whose business model was previously based solely on sales from its own website.
This year, Sheertex has sold about two million pairs of its tights, which retail for around $50 Canadian dollars. Next year, the company plans to triple or even quintuple its sales. “We are still in transition. We moved the factory and there we are in the process of increasing the production rate,” says Mme Homuth.
Manufacture here rather than in Asia
It was in 2017 that Katherine Homuth, originally from Ontario, had the idea of creating ultra-resistant tights. “It started from a very simple observation. I found it strange that we were capable of making autonomous cars, of traveling in space, but not of creating tights that lasted more than a day! » she says.
Through testing, Sheertex found a fabric that met its expectations, made from bioethylene powder, which is transformed into threads then used to weave tights. “Essentially, it’s the same fiber that we find in bulletproof vests,” summarizes M.me Homuth.
In 2019, Sheertex moved into the former Gildan premises, in eastern Montreal, before moving last year to its current factory in Pointe-Claire, whose surface area is better able to meet the ambitions of business growth. “Quickly, we understood that all the expertise we needed was here in Montreal, whether in terms of knitting technicians or mechanics capable of working on our sewing machines,” she explains.
Textile manufacturers are rare today in Quebec, the majority of the industry having relocated to Asia. But Katherine Homuth prides herself on doing things against the grain. “With the technologies that we have developed, we have created intellectual property. We wanted to be able to protect it, which we weren’t sure we could do by working with third parties for manufacturing,” she explains.
Everything is done in Montreal, from the processing of the base material to the shipping of the products. “By investing in the right types of automation, we realized that we could have prices capable of competing with those abroad. And as our processes are energy-intensive, we have the advantage of paying competitive rates for hydroelectricity,” she emphasizes.
Profitability in the sights
This week, Sheertex received public financing for the first time: an investment of $35 million from Investissement Québec (IQ), in the form of debt convertible into shares. “Sheertex has made incredible progress in automating its production,” said IQ CEO Bicha Ngo, who visited the Sheertex factory in recent days. “This is exactly what we want to encourage to increase the productivity of businesses in Quebec,” says M.me Ngo.
Thanks to this financial assistance, the company aims to increase its production and reduce its operating costs. “At the very beginning, it cost us more than $100 to make a pair of tights. Now it costs us about $12. And we’re aiming to get down to around $5. When we get to this production cost, which should happen by the fourth quarter of next year, the company should be profitable,” says Mme Homuth.
The last few weeks have been complex for the company to manage, due to the postal strike, which is hampering sales. “Our Canadian activities are down 44% because of the strike at Canada Post,” argues Katherine Homuth. In the meantime, many orders are on ice. Customers who can are invited to pick up their products directly from the factory.
Typically, Canada represents more than a third of the company’s market share. At present, it is only about a fifth. The majority of its sales are in the United States. A small portion is made in Europe. “I think we’re probably going to lose about 16% of our sales for this quarter, which is a very big quarter for us. So, over the whole year, this should represent a loss of around 10% of our sales,” estimates M.me Homuth.
The businesswoman does not appear discouraged, however. “There is enthusiasm for our products. We are revolutionizing tights. And we are already doing tests to apply our technology to other types of clothing. »
