Lycra Commits $97 Million to Establish Largest Manufacturing Facility in China

Lycra makes inroads into the Chinese market. U.S.-based Lycra has opened its largest production plant worldwide in China. With an investment valued at 800 million Chinese renminbi ($112.4 million), the largest to date in the country, the infrastructure will be used to produce spandex, the fiber plant from which Lycra originates.

The operation, which has been developed through an alliance between the U.S. company and the Yinchuan Financial Capital Investment Group fund, is the company’s second plant in China and will add, in its initial phase, a production capacity of 30,000 tons of spandex. Lycra expects to generate more than 1 billion Chinese renminbi ($140 million).

With the new facility, Lycra has created around 500 jobs in the Ningxia region, where the plant is located. In the long term, the company expects the plant’s capacity to be expanded to 120,000 tons per yearin response to the growing demand for spandex in Asia.

“China is a strategically important market, representing more than 50% of the global apparel production market, so this partnership allows us to optimize our product range more broadly, while responding to increased demand for quality spandex,“ the company said.

Lycra has six manufacturing facilities in North America, Latin America, Europe and Asia

Lycra already has a production plant in the south of the country, in the city of Foshan, Guangdong province. Opened in 2005, this facility employs 500 people.

The company is owned by the Chinese investment banks Everbright and Tor Management, the private equity firm Lindeman Partners and its subsidiary Lindeman Asia, among others.

Lycra, whose origins date back to the 1930s with the invention of nylon fiber by Dupont, today operates under the Lycra, Thermolite, Tactel and Coolmax brands, among others. Headquartered in the United States, the company has six factories in North America, Latin America, Europe and Asia and operates four research and development centers, seven factories and thirteen offices worldwide.