The manufacturer’s director and chief executive officer Asanka Wimalaratna discusses Brandix’s capabilities beyond garment production.
Sri Lanka-based apparel manufacturer Brandix is positioning itself as a strategic partner for global fashion brands with investments in digitalization, verticality and sustainability.
More than a manufacturer, Brandix supports global brands throughout the entire product development process, collaborating on designs that meet end consumers’ rapidly changing demands. Although the industry’s workflows are becoming increasingly efficient through technology — including artificial intelligence — being able to execute with speed and flexibility comes down to the underlying operational footprint. Facilitating rapid response to shifting market signals, Brandix has built a production ecosystem that goes from raw materials to retail-ready garments, centralizing capabilities for agility. Related Articles Beauty The Best Red Light Therapy Panels, Tested by WWD Editors Who Take Their Beauty Tech Seriously Trade Egypt Is Gaining Ground. Can It Keep the Momentum?
Here, Asanka Wimalaratna, director and chief executive officer of Brandix Apparel (Pvt) Limited, speaks with Fairchild Studio about consumer trends, why value now matters more than volume and how Brandix is tackling carbon reduction.
Fairchild Studio : How would you describe your partnerships with fashion brands?
Asanka Wimalaratna: Our approach to apparel product development is built around the customer. Every retail partner has a unique brand identity, consumer proposition and product strategy, whether they are a global high-street retailer, a niche brand or an emerging startup.
We work collaboratively with our customers’ design, innovation, merchandising and product development teams to co-create products that align with their brand vision. By combining our expertise in materials, garment engineering, manufacturing and sustainable innovation with their consumer insights, we develop differentiated apparel solutions that are both commercially viable and scalable.
Fairchild Studio: What key consumer trends are you seeing, and how is this shaping product development?
A.W.: Economic uncertainty, inflation and tariffs have made consumers more deliberate in their purchasing decisions. Rather than buying more, they are buying better — seeking greater value through quality, sustainability, innovation, personalization and accessible price points. For apparel brands, success is no longer driven by volume alone, but by delivering products with a clear, differentiated value proposition.
Sustainability has also become a baseline expectation. These shifts are shaping our product development around sharper, more purposeful assortments, while growing consumer interest in wellness and active lifestyles is opening adjacent opportunities. We are exploring products that align naturally with these priorities, including comfort, wellness-led functionality and products that support more active lifestyles. Sustainability is being embedded into the development process from the outset — through material choices, responsible sourcing and responsible, ethical manufacturing.
Fairchild Studio: For your partners, what impact does vertical infrastructure have on product development and collaboration?
A.W.: We have established strong vertical partnerships across the apparel value chain — from cotton and synthetic fabrics to trims, material components and garment value-added processes. This integrated ecosystem enables greater speed, agility and control throughout the product lifecycle. By connecting innovation, product development and bulk execution capabilities, we help customers accelerate time to market, enhance product differentiation and deliver consistent quality at scale.
Fairchild Studio: You mentioned speed. Why is shortening time to market so critical in today’s operating environment?
A.W.: Beyond regional sourcing, tariff management and logistics optimization, many retailers continue to lose margin due to inaccurate demand forecasting, resulting in excess inventory, markdowns and write-offs.
Today, leading retailers are leveraging AI-driven trend forecasting, demand sensing and inventory optimization tools to better predict and respond to changing consumer preferences. Our role is to complement these capabilities by enabling greater supply chain agility — allowing customers to make product decisions as late as possible while maintaining speed to market. By combining flexible product development, responsive manufacturing and integrated supply chain capabilities, we can help retailers reduce risk, improve inventory productivity and maximize full-price sell-through.
Fairchild Studio: Brandix is working toward becoming a digital-first company. How does technology come into play for customer collaboration and product creation?
A.W.: Many design and product teams are leveraging advanced tools for trend forecasting, concept creation and consumer insight generation. At the same time, 3D design and digital product development platforms are gaining momentum, enabling greater collaboration between brands and manufacturing partners while reducing dependency on traditional physical sample iterations. AI-powered apparel visualization enables faster digital content generation, reducing the need for costly photoshoots and supporting rapid catalog development with more inclusive representation.
Beyond design, AI-driven demand forecasting and supply chain analytics are enhancing demand forecasting accuracy, reducing inventory risk and identifying potential supply chain bottlenecks before they impact execution.
Our opportunity is to combine these digital capabilities with our apparel expertise to create a faster, more agile and data-driven product development ecosystem for our customers.
Fairchild Studio: How are Brandix’s sustainability investments supporting your customers’ own carbon footprint goals?
A.W.: Brandix is committed to enabling a lower carbon future for the apparel industry. Brandix Essentials Batticaloa became the world’s first net-zero carbon-certified apparel manufacturing facility, and we have since expanded net-zero certification to six facilities. Our ambition is to achieve net-zero carbon across Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions by 2030, helping brands decarbonize one of the most significant contributors within their fashion value chain. By using Higg’s Facility Environmental Module (FEM), we provide customers with transparent, standardized and auditable environmental performance data to support their Scope 3 sustainability reporting and decarbonization goals.
Brandix is also advancing circularity through product and material innovation — designing for durability, reuse, recyclability and remanufacturing while exploring bio-based materials and next-generation recycling solutions. This approach helps reduce embedded emissions at the product level and enables brands to create more sustainable apparel portfolios.
Together, these capabilities position Brandix as a strategic sustainable and ethical partner, helping customers move from ambition to measurable impact across their supply chains.
To learn more about Brandix, visit Brandix.com .
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