Fashion

West Africa's largest clothing manufacturer, DTRT Apparel Ltd (DTRT), secures major investment


New York – West Africa’s largest clothing manufacturer, DTRT Apparel Ltd
(DTRT), has announced a major investment from investment firm Verod Capital
Management and Red Bull GmbH. The amount remains private.

Verod Capital is investing alongside a major strategic investor, Red Bull,
which will be an anchor customer for DTRT, and DTRT will be a part of Red
Bull’s global apparel sourcing operations.

Commenting the deal, Skip Richmond, co-founder and co-CEO of DTRT
Apparel said in a statement that “Given today’s global macro-economics,
apparel brands are increasingly looking for cost competitive, socially
responsible, long-term manufacturing alternatives outside Asia. This
milestone deal is an affirmation of our vision of sustainable apparel
manufacturing in Ghana – with the highest production, environmental and
labour standards – and affords us the opportunity to significantly expand
our production capacity and capabilities to make DTRT Africa’s leading
apparel manufacturer. We’re very excited to work with our partners and
strategic investors to drive growth and provide our value-added services on
a larger scale to current and future customers.”

In the same joint statement, Danladi Verheijen, Verod’s managing
director said: “Verod Capital’s investment in DTRT is predicated on the
very rapid growth of the Ghanaian economy, due largely to its political
stability, and Ghana’s unique advantages for cost-competitive
production. The DTRT team are highly experienced operators who are also
100% committed to improving the lives of West Africans, which aligns with
the mission of Verod Capital. We look forward to working with the Founders
to build up this business but also to help West Africa become a major hub
for apparel manufacturing.”

DTRT employs over 2,000 people in West Africa, procuring textiles from
Asia and exporting primarily to the EU and US markets, benefitting from
supportive trade arrangements between the US/EU and Ghana.

DTRT Apparel was founded in 2013 by two apparel industry entrepreneurs
in a joint venture with a renowned Ghanaian fashion entrepreneur, Salma
Salifu, Managing Director of Dignity DTRT, the company’s manufacturing
partner.

Environmental sustainability is at the core of the DTRT business
model: The business works with suppliers to produce a polyester fabric that
requires 80 percent less water for dyeing than the traditional
fabric-dyeing process. DTRT estimates they have saved over 200,000,000
litres of water over the last five years using this fabric.



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