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AyRojgar

Tailoring and small garment unit

Trousers stitch for Tk 600: Tk 220 to the karigor, Tk 90 other costs, Tk 290 to the shop. One karigor does five trousers or ten shirts a day. The real money is sub-contract work, and its rules just tightened.

  • Last reviewed: 19 September 2026
  • Version 1
Starting capital
৳60,000 – ৳8,00,000
Editorial estimate
Manpower
1 – 30 people
First sale
15 – 45 days
Editorial estimate
Break-even
5 – 9 months
Editorial estimate
Kind of work
Workshop · Medium difficulty

What the business is

The arithmetic of a tailoring shop is written in what the karigor is paid. A worker in Bahadur Bazar, Dinajpur put it plainly: the owner charges Tk 600 to stitch a pair of trousers, the karigor gets Tk 220 and other costs take Tk 90, leaving the shop Tk 290. A shirt is Tk 450 with Tk 140 to the karigor. One karigor can sew five pairs of trousers or ten shirts a day and earns around Tk 1,000; a woman karigor sews five three-piece sets a day. Those numbers decide how many machines are worth putting in. But the large money is not in local stitching. It is in sub-contract work from Dhaka buying houses and big factories: when a large exporter is short on lead time it puts work out, and when a small factory has no orders of its own it takes sub-contract work to cover operating costs. Only 2-3 percent of Bangladesh's garment exports go through sub-contracting. The rules on that work tightened in FY 2025-26. An NBR notification requires sub-contract transactions to be settled in foreign currency only, with the bond commissioner's approval and a bank guarantee, and the commissioner must be notified within 24 hours; breach the conditions and 15 percent VAT applies. A BGMEA vice-president said the normal practice in sub-contracting is cash, because through the bank the sub-contractor often is not paid on time - the bank deducts against dues - and then workers' wages cannot be paid.

Unit economics

ItemRangeEvidenceSuggest a correction
Monthly working capital৳26,000 – ৳1,30,000Editorial estimate
Selling price৳450 – ৳600 / unitMarket quote
Variable cost৳140 – ৳310 / unitMarket quote
Gross margin48% – 69%Editorial estimate
Time to first revenue15 – 45 daysEditorial estimate
Break-even time5 – 9 monthsEditorial estimate
Cash cycle0 – 60 daysEditorial estimate
Waste / loss1% – 4%Editorial estimate
Daily capacity5 – 15Market quote

What you need to start

  • Sewing machines (one per karigor), an overlock machine (a Butterfly three-thread is Tk 11,890), a cutting table, shears, iron, measuring tape, a dummy and storage. No verified price for an industrial straight-stitch machine was found.Equipment
  • Thread, buttons, zips, lining and interlining. The customer usually brings the fabric, so a local tailor needs little stock - the biggest advantage of this trade.Starting stock
  • To take export sub-contract work: bond commissioner's approval, a bank guarantee, settlement in foreign currency and notification to the commissioner within 24 hours - the NBR notification of FY 2025-26. Breach brings 15 percent VAT. To claim the export cash incentive, the Sub-Contracting Guidelines in RMG Industry-2019 and the Direct Export-Oriented RMG Establishment (Warehouse Method) Rules, 2024 must be followed.Licence
  • Trade licence from the city corporation or municipality: form Tk 10, licence book Tk 50, standard tax Tk 30, non-judicial stamp Tk 150-300, licence fee Tk 100-60,000 by trade type, plus VAT and signboard fee. Issued in 3-5 working days.Licence
  • Measuring and cutting decide everything. A bad cut ruins the fabric, and the fabric belongs to the customer. A skilled karigor of fourteen years still does no more than five sets a day, which is how long the skill takes to build.Skill
  • Wholesale suppliers of thread, buttons, zips and lining, plus a connection to a Dhaka buying house or a large exporting factory for sub-contract work.Supplier
  • A shop or room near the fabric market, with space per machine and good light. Export sub-contract work needs a separate factory with its own production facility; traders without manufacturing do not qualify.Workspace

How the work runs

  1. 1Decide which work you are in: local stitching, uniform orders, or sub-contract from Dhaka. The capital, rules and risks are different for each.
  2. 2Take space near the fabric shops. Tailoring clusters where cloth is sold, as in Bahadur Bazar and Maldahpatti in Dinajpur.
  3. 3Take the trade licence from the city corporation or municipality, and for a factory also get TIN and VAT registration.
  4. 4Buy machines and decide the job behind each one first: straight stitch, overlock, buttonhole and button. A Butterfly three-thread overlock is Tk 11,890.
  5. 5Hire karigors. The karigor is the business: one does five trousers or ten shirts a day and earns about Tk 1,000.
  6. 6Write down the charge and the karigor's share for every garment. On Tk 600 trousers, Tk 220 goes to the karigor and Tk 90 to other costs; without that book the profit is invisible.
  7. 7Book seasonal karigors at least two months before Eid. Dinajpur shops take orders until 24-25 Ramadan and deliver until the morning of Eid.
  8. 8Chase school, college and factory uniform orders. One order is many pieces, and though the rate is lower the work is steady - it is what carries the non-Eid months.
  9. 9Before chasing sub-contract work, learn the rules. The NBR notification requires settlement in foreign currency only, the bond commissioner's approval and a bank guarantee, with notification to the commissioner within 24 hours.
  10. 10Sub-contracts are issued through BGMEA or BKMEA; without membership and correct papers there is no work.
  11. 11Keep the paperwork and payment terms of every sub-contract in writing. Breaking the conditions brings 15 percent VAT, and the liability lands on you.

Seasons

  1. JanNormal
  2. FebHigh
  3. MarHigh
  4. AprNormal
  5. MayHigh
  6. JunNormal
  7. JulNormal
  8. AugNormal
  9. SepNormal
  10. OctNormal
  11. NovNormal
  12. DecNormal
HighNormalLow

Where it fits

  • Strong fitChattogram · The Chattogram Bond Commissionerate reports that most factories here work on sub-contract, and banking difficulties have put small owners here under the most pressure.
  • Strong fitDhaka · The buying houses are here; the wholesale fabric markets of Islampur and Gulistan and the sub-contract work both radiate from Dhaka.
  • Strong fitGazipur · The densest concentration of export factories; when a big factory is short on lead time the work goes to the small units around it.
  • Strong fitNarayanganj · An old knitwear and hosiery centre with many small units and fabric close at hand.
  • PossibleBogura · A northern trading centre drawing buyers from the surrounding districts.
  • PossibleCumilla · An EPZ and highway access bring spillover work from the Dhaka factories.
  • PossibleDinajpur · Bahadur Bazar and Maldahpatti are dense with fabric and tailoring shops; the small-town rates of Tk 600 for trousers and Tk 450 for a shirt come from here.
  • PossibleJashore · The border and Benapole keep fabric supply good, with a substantial local market.
  • PossibleSylhet · Remittance households have more to spend, so demand for made-to-measure clothing is relatively strong.
  • PossibleTangail · An old handloom and fabric area where locally available cloth supports tailoring work.

Risks and cautions

  • HighCompliance: The sub-contract rules changed suddenly. In the FY 2025-26 budget NBR issued a notification ending settlement in local currency: foreign currency only, with the bond commissioner's approval, a bank guarantee and notification within 24 hours. Non-compliance brings 15 percent VAT. The Chattogram Bond Commissionerate has written to BGMEA and BKMEA saying sub-contracts are being issued without approval or bank guarantees. Factories that cannot get bank support are effectively being pushed out of this work.
  • HighLate payment: Sub-contract money does not arrive on time. BGMEA vice-president Md Shihab Uddoza Chowdhury: 'the general practice in sub-contracting is a cash transaction, because through the bank those who do sub-contract work often are not paid on time - the bank deducts against dues. Then after doing the work, wages cannot be paid.' When wages are held up workers protest; there were sit-ins over unpaid wages in Ashulia as recently as September 2026.
  • HighDemand: The work is bunched around Eid and close to nothing in between. Shops run all night before Eid and then the machines sit idle for months while rent and karigor costs continue. Md Forkan of Unique Tailors in Dinajpur said in March 2026 that orders were down on last year, and gave the reason: with everything dearer, stitching charges rose and orders fell.
  • HighDemand: Ready-made showrooms are taking the tailor's customers. Masud Rana Sumon, a karigor in Dinajpur: 'most customers are going to the showroom, because the stitching charge is high and at the showroom they get a finished garment cheaper.' Add fabric to a Tk 600 stitching charge and it often comes to more than a ready-made pair of trousers.
  • MediumDependency: Sub-contract work is not in your hands. BGMEA itself says small and medium factories take sub-contract work only when they have no orders of their own and need to cover operating costs, and large exporters give it out only when they cannot meet lead time. Only 2-3 percent of Bangladesh's garment exports go this way, so the volume is limited and irregular.
  • MediumWorking capital: Karigors are paid daily or weekly while customers pay on delivery. One karigor alone costs around Tk 26,000 a month (Tk 1,000 a day for 26 days). Bringing in seasonal karigors before Eid needs cash up front, while the order money only arrives on delivery.

Sources

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