AGF Group, Kazakhstan’s first specialised home textile manufacturer, has supplied 4.4 bn tenge ($11.9 mn) in products to foreign markets in 2018, increasing export production sevenfold. In 2015, the company signed a contract with IKEA to supply bed linens using timely state support.
Located in Shymkent, AGF Group was the first specialised garment factory and one of the country’s largest home textile manufacturers. Established more than seven years ago, it has been exporting products for five years.
To increase the volume of production and production capacity, as well as develop new markets, AGF needed a bank loan. The company decided to use state support, receiving a 200-mn tenge ($540,000) loan from the Kazakh Export national company and increasing its staff to 250. Using the borrowed funds, the company was able to export seven times more products compared to the same period the previous year.
AGF Group’s share of bed linen exports reached 93 per cent in 2016, growing to 96 per cent in the first half of this year. Two years ago, the company’s annual revenue from product sales was 450 mn tenge ($1.2 mn); the export volume in the first 11 months of 2018 has reached 4.4 bn tenge ($11.9 mn).
AGF Group plans to create new brands such as Arua, a home textile and bed linen line made from natural materials, and Suave, a line of premium textiles. Kazakh Export can provide services for any Kazakh enterprise which produces non-primary goods and plans to enter international markets. The organisation protects any Kazakh business from unwanted risks and provides 13 different tools to support small and medium-sized businesses, including credit insurance, bank payment guarantee insurance and pre-export financing.
A subsidiary of Baiterek Holding, Kazakh Export was established to support export growth of non-commodity goods, works, services in priority sectors of the economy and forming financial-insurance and non-financial support for Kazakh enterprises. By 2023, it plans to become a key development institution in implementing state foreign economic policy in the Central Asian region and countries within the Eurasian Economic Union.
