Seongdong-gu Nanum Sewing Cooperative Selected as '2020 Village Enterprise' by Ministry of the Interior and Safety

Direct Bundled Shipping, Promotion of Training and Joint Sales, Production and Supply of 120,000 Cloth Masks

[Asia Economy Reporter Jong-il Park] Seongdong-gu (Mayor Jeong Won-oh) announced that the ‘Nanum Sewing Cooperative’ has been selected as a ‘2020 New Village Enterprise’ by the Ministry of the Interior and Safety.

Seongdong-gu is the area with the highest number of workers in the textile manufacturing industry and is adjacent to the Dongdaemun wholesale market, which provides the advantages of rapid logistics and ease of transactions, resulting in a concentration of small businesses with fewer than five employees.

The ‘Nanum Sewing Cooperative’ was established in 2016 to promote the development of the sewing industry and contribute to the local economy by uniting these small businesses.

The cooperative has been recognized for its corporate viability, community spirit, public interest, and locality through cost reduction by bulk purchasing and job sharing among workplaces. Since 2017, it has also contributed to environmental protection through a fabric scrap recycling project in collaboration with Seongdong-gu.

This year, the cooperative plans to implement the ‘Direct Bundled Delivery Service,’ ‘Second-Generation Sewing Worker Training,’ and the offline store sales project called ‘Fly, Ootcha.’

The ‘Direct Bundled Delivery Service’ addresses the issues of excessive costs caused by the existing nighttime quick service delivery and delivery delays due to congestion during specific time slots. It collects deliveries by motorcycle at intermediate points and then bundles them for delivery using the cooperative’s vehicles.

The ‘Second-Generation Sewing Worker Training’ project is designed in response to the fact that over 60% of current sewing workers in Seongdong-gu are in their 50s. It aims to form new leaders in Seongdong-gu’s fashion sewing industry and strengthen sustainability through generational linkage and the succession of expertise.

Beyond basic sewing education, the program offers training in planning, design, marketing, social sales, online entrepreneurship, and management consulting. It encourages coexistence and development in the sewing industry, which has been limited to manufacturing, by combining the skills of the first generation with the ideas and improvements of the second generation.

‘Fly, Ootcha’ aims to alleviate the difficulty of maintaining operations year-round, as sewing companies face seasonal work concentration and operate only about nine months annually. By operating offline stores for direct product sales instead of wholesale, it seeks to resolve off-season business difficulties.

In addition to offline stores, joint sales will be conducted through ‘shop-in-shop’ collaborations with local cafes and landmarks. The cooperative also plans to participate in various events and flea markets hosted by public institutions on weekends when there is no vehicle delivery.

In response to the mask shortage caused by COVID-19, Seongdong-gu signed a contract with local sewing cooperatives to produce and supply washable cotton masks. The Nanum Sewing Cooperative is expected to supply 120,000 masks within this month, contributing to resolving the mask shortage issue.

Jeong Won-oh, Mayor of Seongdong-gu, said, “Small sewing companies can realize community benefits and solve local problems by utilizing local resources and coexisting with each other.” He added, “I hope they establish themselves as a successful local business model by producing new products using their unique technologies and developing their own brands.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.