South Korean apparel manufacturer Hansae Co. and its fabric affiliate Color & Touch (CNT) are building a fully integrated textile production facility in Guatemala, consolidating yarn spinning, knitting and dyeing at a single site to serve the U.S. market.

Young Kim, vice president of Color & Touch, presented the plan at Sourcing Journal's annual Sourcing Summit on Tuesday under the banner of "next horizons in Central America." He said the facility will support fast, traceable and eco-friendly fabric and apparel production for U.S. buyers.

Hansae brings scale to the venture. The company has more than 40 years in global garment sourcing and reported $1.4 billion in sales last year. Its holding group expects $2.4 billion in 2025 across apparel manufacturing, retail, publishing and new mobility businesses in Korea. Color & Touch, the group's textile division, runs major production sites in Vietnam and Asia, with projected sales of $250 million in 2026 and a target of $500 million by 2030.

Kim said shifting supply chain requirements from major American, European and Japanese retailers have made Central America the company's primary growth focus for the next decade.

One site, full chain

The Guatemalan plant breaks from the model of spreading yarn spinning, knitting and dyeing across separate locations. Co-locating the entire process gives retail partners clear oversight and simpler quality management.

"Guatemala allows us to connect the entire process—starting from yarn to the finished product—all in one location," Kim said. "By building a vertically integrated system here, we can provide greater traceability and transparency for our customers while serving as a new hub for the textile and apparel industry in the Western Hemisphere."

Freight math

Speed to market anchors the business case. Shipping from Asian hubs such as Vietnam takes 19 to 24 days to reach the U.S. West Coast and up to 42 days to the East Coast. From Guatemalan ports, transit runs 9 to 10 days to the West Coast and 12 to 23 days to the East Coast.

"The market demands more speed, flexibility, and tighter inventory management," Kim said. "By sourcing from Guatemala instead of Asia, we reduce transportation times to the U.S. by two to three weeks. Central America offers a major strategic advantage for serving the American market."

Quality and compliance claims

Kim framed the plant's quality proposition around inputs, not just location. "Our goal is not simply to build a facility near the United States," he said. "We want to manufacture high-quality cotton and synthetic fabrics right here in the Western Hemisphere by combining premium U.S. cotton with advanced machinery and technology."

The company's sustainability claims rest on consolidation and equipment. Removing intermediate transport steps is expected to cut carbon emissions by the equivalent of 30,000 transport trips. "Consolidating our spinning, knitting and dyeing operations into a single compound eliminates intermediate transportation, cutting carbon emissions significantly," Kim said. "Combined with eco-friendly machinery, we expect to achieve up to a 60 percent savings in utility efficiency compared to legacy facilities in Asia."

These figures are company projections; buyers evaluating the site against their own emissions reporting will need to verify them at the facility level.

Kim summarized the strategy in five principles: faster lead times, full traceability, higher quality, vertical integration and greater sustainability. The stated aim is to give Western Hemisphere brands a flexible alternative to cross-Pacific sourcing.

For U.S. sourcing teams, the announcement adds a vertically integrated Western Hemisphere option with quantified transit advantages. The decision it forces: whether to shift a portion of Asia-based fabric and garment programs to Central America now, or wait to audit the Guatemala site's traceability and utility-efficiency claims against third-party standards before committing volume.