Garment factories in Gazipur

A composite factory runs several production stages on one site: typically knitting the fabric, dyeing and finishing it, then cutting and sewing the garment, often with printing and embroidery in-house too. The alternative is a chain of separate companies. Two things change under one roof. Lead time shortens, because every transfer between companies adds days of transport, waiting and incoming inspection, and those are the days most often lost. Accountability improves, because when a shade is off or a fabric fault appears mid-run, one company owns the problem and fixes it internally. Gazipur is where most of Bangladesh’s composite knit capacity sits. Ask which stages really are on site, though: some composite factories buy in dyed fabric for certain qualities, and a jersey mill may still outsource fleece brushing or heavy piqué. We tell you which stages happen where before you approve the order, and the fabric test report comes from the bulk fabric, not a swatch.

Usually not on good terms, and you should be wary of one that says yes too easily. A factory built to run tens of thousands of pieces a week loses money changing its lines over for a few hundred, so a small order placed there tends to get whatever attention is left after the big ones, which shows up as slipping dates and inconsistent quality. That is the real risk, not the price. Our job is to place your order where the quantity is welcome: knitwear and caps from 500 pieces per style and colour go to our own factory in Narayanganj, the factory of our sister company, Collective Studio Ltd., which also makes and prices runs from 150; other products go to a mid-size unit that treats your run as a proper order rather than a favour. As you grow, the Gazipur belt is where the capacity is waiting, and moving up is much easier when it is planned rather than rushed.

The latest public figure is 2,176 registered industrial units in the Gazipur region, of which 743 are BGMEA member garment factories and 124 are BKMEA knitwear members, according to Gazipur Industrial Police as reported by The Business Standard on 4 July 2026; another 128 are BTMA textile mills. So the garment count depends on the definition, because the larger figure includes units of every type. The Mapped in Bangladesh census found most of the country’s export garment factories in four districts, Gazipur among them, and its public database listed 3,320 factories nationally when we checked on 18 September 2026. For a buyer the count matters less than the one factory you use. Ask for its legal name and address, look it up in that database, check its building-safety status on the International Accord list and verify its audit ID with the scheme. We send those details in writing before production starts.

Look it up by name. The US Green Building Council keeps a public project directory of LEED-certified buildings, and Bangladesh had 291 LEED-certified garment factories, according to BGMEA’s website on 23 September 2026. If a factory says it is LEED-certified, its name and level should appear there; if it does not, the claim is at best pending. The same rule applies to every other certificate: GOTS, OCS and GRS certificates carry numbers that the certifier’s database confirms, OEKO-TEX certificates can be checked on the OEKO-TEX label check, and social audits carry an audit ID the scheme can verify. We do these checks before we shortlist a factory and send you the results with the factory’s name and address, so a green claim on your product page rests on a certificate you have seen rather than a supplier’s brochure. A factory that resists being looked up is telling you something.

It makes all three, although knitwear is the largest group. The Mapped in Bangladesh database listed 1,124 export garment factories in Gazipur on 1 October 2026. By our count of the factory types recorded there, 430 are knit garment factories and 85 are knit composites, 409 make woven garments and 292 make sweaters; some factories are recorded under more than one type. The 85 composites compare with 60 in Narayanganj, 27 in Dhaka district and 2 in Chattogram, which is why the district is known for jersey, piqué and fleece at volume. The woven and sweater numbers mean a brand does not have to leave Gazipur to add chinos, shirts or flat-knit jumpers to a knit range. Machinery and the factory’s appetite for your quantity decide the placement. Send us the full range, with the quantity per style and colour, and we will say which pieces can share a factory and which need separate ones.

Common, but far from universal. The Mapped in Bangladesh database, searched on 1 October 2026, recorded amfori BSCI for 779 of Gazipur’s 1,124 export garment factories, Sedex for 666, OEKO-TEX for 546, the Global Organic Textile Standard for 421, the Global Recycled Standard for 392 and the Organic Content Standard for 375. Those are the six most frequent entries for the district. They show what the census recorded for each factory, not that a document is valid today or that it covers your product, because audits and certificates have a scope and an expiry date. So use the database to narrow the search, and the scheme’s own register to confirm. Tell us which standards your market or retailer requires before we shortlist. Then ask for the certificate or audit number of each factory proposed, and check it with the issuer before you place the order.

About half are. The Mapped in Bangladesh database, searched on 1 October 2026, recorded an Accord listing for 601 of Gazipur’s 1,124 export garment factories and an RMG Sustainability Council listing for 553; a further 447 entries were under the National Initiative, and a factory can appear on more than one list. Nationally, the International Accord’s Bangladesh page counted 1,759 covered factories and 2.8 million workers as of 31 August 2026, and says its safety agreement is implemented in Bangladesh by the RMG Sustainability Council. That programme covers fire, electrical, structural and boiler safety, and publishes each covered factory’s corrective action plan and remediation progress. A factory on neither list is not automatically unsafe, but its inspection record is something you will have to ask for. Before you order, search the factory’s name on the Accord’s factory pages, read its remediation progress, and send us the name if the listing is missing or unclear.

Most are inside Gazipur City Corporation, which includes Tongi at the Dhaka end of the belt. The Mapped in Bangladesh database, searched on 1 October 2026, placed 696 of the district’s 1,124 export garment factories there, with 688,757 workers, and another 231 under Gazipur Sadar upazila. By police station area across the district, Gacha had 241 factories, Bashan 165, Joydebpur 128, Kashimpur 118, Tongi West 107, Konabari 79 and Tongi East 71. Further out the factories are fewer and much larger: Sreepur upazila had 92 with 158,304 workers and Kaliakoir 92 with 196,667, over 1,700 people per factory in each. That matters for a visit, because Sreepur and Kaliakoir are a longer drive from Dhaka than Tongi, and for order size, because the big outlying plants are planned around long runs. Ask your supplier for the factory’s upazila and police station, and send us the name so we can confirm where it is before you book travel.

No. Our own factory is in Narayanganj, south-east of Dhaka: it is the factory of our sister company, Collective Studio Ltd., and knitwear and caps on our own orders are made there. We do not make anything in Gazipur. When a product we source rather than make, such as denim, jackets, woven shirts and trousers, workwear or sweaters, is placed in Gazipur, it goes to an audited partner factory. That factory is named to you in writing before production, with its address, its audit report and audit ID, and any certificates with their numbers, so that you can look it up in the Mapped in Bangladesh database and on the Accord’s factory pages yourself. Our own orders start at 500 pieces per style and colour; denim, jackets, woven shirts, workwear and uniforms start at 2,000.

Large, though not all of them. By our own count of the Mapped in Bangladesh records on 2 November 2026, the median Gazipur export garment factory employs 700 people, so half have fewer, against 297 in Narayanganj; the average is about 1,200 because a few very large plants pull it up. Of the 1,124 factories, 321 employ fewer than 300, 359 between 300 and 999, 339 between 1,000 and 2,999 and 105 have 3,000 or more. The 85 knit composites are larger still, with a median of 2,300 workers, and women are about 56% of the recorded workforce. Size matters to you in two ways. A big factory plans its lines around long runs, so a few hundred pieces may be declined or fitted in around larger orders. And the recorded workforce is a check on what a supplier tells you: if a sales contact’s figure and the database’s are far apart, ask why.