Celebrities under the spotlight 47 Xavier Llongueras (Dyneke) “It is only by offering especially good, differentiated products that you can succeed” Dyneke’s production centre is located in Piera (Barcelona). It is one of the pioneering companies in the sector of uniform gowns, and the great design component this firm includes turns the formerly dull workwear into attractive, lively proposals. Fashion is a factor that also has its influence in this sector, and it is almost a must to adapt new trends in this respect. We talked with Xavier Llongueras, Manager of this company, and his answers tell us more about Dyneke’s history, during these past thirty years. Since when has Dyneke been active in the workwear sector? We started working in this sector in the ‘70s, though it was in the ‘90s and in 2000 that we empowered this segment in our activity as manufacturers. What used to be the company’s main activity? In the beginning we used to make only gowns for home wear, and classic, traditional dresses, in the style of shirts so back then, work- wear represented only 5% of our overall production. However, this has changed and today, it makes up 80% of what we make.This goes to show that nowadays, Dyneke’s major activity is the design and manufacture of professional wear. If you were to translate this into percentages, how would you de- fine Dyneke’s production? Like I said, 80% corresponds to professional wear, 15% to school uniforms, and the remaining portion would be fashion and shirt-like dresses. Why do you continue to make the traditional shirt-style dresses, even today? That’s because we have a loyal market that has been buying our dresses for so many years. Who are your clients, in the sectors of industry and business? We work only for the business and servicing sectors.This latter chapter includes esthetics, school teachers, hostelry and health care. In terms of the industrial sectors, you will find that large companies usually seek price over quality and design, whereas business and servicing is more into quality uniforms, with good, customized design.This is what we offer. What have been the major changes markets experimented of late? Diversity in what companies offer has changed.We used to work basically with white and airline blue, but today, workwear has be- come more diverse, daring, adapting to new trends.We are one of the first to introduce colour changes in workwear, and today Dyneke is known as synonymous with colour and rich design. In terms of design, can we also talk about major changes over the past few decades? Of course. For variety in the past used to be only about buttons. Now, it is zippers, hooks, clips,Velcro and many other details. Specialization calls for design variety. Do you export? Not yet. But we are working on some projects, to open foreign markets. It is one of our most immediate goals. To conclude, we would like to hear your personal views I would like to tell workwear distributors that Dyneke adds evi- dent value to workwear, because we want our clothes to be adapted to market needs, but never compromising esthetics. On the other hand, I also want to point out that the recent boom of imported products from coun- tries with low labour costs is not really helping our industry.Those who wanted to compete and lower their standards in terms of prices, are now in a serious crisis. It is precisely in view of such competition that we need to re- member our weapons are qua- lity, design and customization. We at Dyneke firmly believe that it is only when you offer very good, differentiated products that you can succeed. JOBWEAR 60 1er TRIMESTRE 2012