Talon International Profile
Talon International, Inc. engages in manufacturing and distributing a range of apparel components and accessories, including custom zippers, apparel trim components (such as tags, labels, patches, fasteners, packaging, and similar items), and specialty stretch technology for interlinings.
The company’s items are sold to manufacturers of fashion apparel, specialty retailers and mass merchandisers. The company manufactures and distributes zippers under its Talon brand name to manufacturers for apparel brands and retailers, such as Polo Ralph Lauren, Abercrombie & Fitch, Fat Face, Eddie Bauer, Guess, Ben Sherman, and Express, as well as mass merchants, such as Kohl’s, JC Penney, and Wal-Mart.
The company also provides outsourced trim design, sourcing and management services and supply custom branded trim components for manufacturers of fashion apparel, such as VF Corporation, American Eagle, Victoria’s Secret, Fat Face, Abercrombie & Fitch, Polo Ralph Lauren, Express, and various others. Under its Tekfit brand, the company develops and sells fabric stretch technology that utilizes patented processes and proprietary know-how to create stretchable comfort waistbands, shirt collars, and inner pocketing panels to manufacturers for apparel brands and retailers, such as Dockers, PVH, Uniqlo, and Superior Uniforms.
Products
The company operates its business within the following product groups:
Talon Zipper
The company designs, engineers, tests, and distributes custom zippers under its Talon trademark to apparel brands and manufacturers on a global basis. The company is a specified custom zipper and preferred zipper brand for various manufacturers in the designer, sportswear, children’s wear, and outerwear markets worldwide.
The company provides multiple lines of custom zippers, including metal, coil and plastic zippers; vintage zippers; and specialty zippers for kids clothing and other fit-for-purpose applications, such as footwear, workwear and specialty bags. All products are for distribution to apparel manufacturers worldwide, including markets in China, Taiwan, India, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Vietnam, the Middle East, Europe, Mexico, and Central America. The company has sales and marketing teams in majority of these areas.
The company has joint manufacturing arrangements in strategic international local markets to manufacture, finish and distribute its products locally under the Talon brand name. The company expands its distribution of Talon zippers through the establishment of a combination of Talon owned sales and distribution locations, and strategic manufacturing and distribution relationships. These distribution and manufacturing relationships, in combination with Talon owned and affiliated facilities, improve its time-to-market by allowing the company to source, finish and distribute to apparel manufacturers within their local markets.
Talon Trim Group
The company’s tracking and order management systems allow it to supply Talon Trim solutions and products to apparel brands, retailers and manufacturers worldwide. The company produces custom hang tags, metal fasteners, woven, leather, synthetic, embroidered and novelty labels and tapes, which could be printed on or woven into a range of fabrics, as well as interlining and stretch technology components and other materials using specialized equipment.
The company’s Tekfit products, which are a part of the Talon Trim Group, provide manufacturers with fabric interlinings and patented technology, manufacturing know-how, proprietary equipment and materials necessary to produce expandable waistbands, shirt collars and various other stretch technology apparel interlining components. All of Talon Trim Group products are sold to a similar class of customers, sourced from specialty trim suppliers, are distributed using similar distribution methods and are sold by a shared salesforce; these similarities support the aggregation of the operating results into a combined Talon Trim Group.
The company’s Talon Trim products group acts as an integrated single-source designer, product developer and supplier for a range of custom trim items for manufacturers of fashion apparel. The company’s business focuses on servicing all of the trim requirements of its customers at the manufacturing and retail brand level of the fashion apparel industry. The company’s Talon Trim products include all components required to manufacture a garment with the exception of the fabric and the thread. Talon Trim items include labels, buttons, rivets, leather patches, woven labels, heat transfer seals, tapes, ribbons, printed marketing material, polybasic, packing cartons and hangers.
The company’s Talon Trim products also include its Talon Stretch Technology products. Under the Tekfit brand, the company supplies apparel manufacturers with interlining products and a patented fabric technology that creates stretchable fabric from non-stretchable material.
The company designs the buttons, snaps, hang tags, labels, zippers, zipper pulls and other items to meet the customer’s needs. The company serves as a nominated supplier in its Talon Zipper and Talon Trim products (including its Tekfit stretch technology products) for various major retail brand and private-label oriented companies.
Customers
The company has approximately 800 customers representing approximately 250 of the world’s major brands. The company’s customers include the designated suppliers of apparel retailers and brands, such as VF Corporation, Fat Face, Express, Polo Ralph Lauren, American Eagle, Next, Eddie Bauer, Uniqlo, PVH, Ben Sherman, NY & Co., Guess, and Berne USA among others. The company’s customers also include contractors, agents and importers for mass merchant retailers, such as Kohl’s, Wal-Mart, JC Penney, Costco and others.
Sales and Marketing
The company sells its products through its own sales force based in the United States, Hong Kong, China, India, Indonesia, Vietnam, and Bangladesh. The company also sells through outside sales representatives in Europe and develops Central America opportunities through its U.S. sales force and outside sales representatives.
Intellectual Property Rights and Licenses
The company has trademarks, patent rights, copyrights, software copyrights and trade names for which it relies on common law protection, including the Talon trademark. Several of the company’s other trademarks are the subject of applications for federal trademark protection through registration with the United States Patent and Trademark Office, including Talon, Tag-It, Kidzip, and Tekfit. The company holds patent rights for various major processes and products, including the Tekfit stretchable fabric products, specialty zippers, and garment fasteners.
Seasonality
The company experiences seasonal fluctuations in sales volume consistent with the purchase demands of the apparel industry. In majority years, these seasonal fluctuations result in lower sales volumes for the company’s business in the first and fourth quarters of each year (year ended December 2016) due to the seasonal buying patterns by the majority of its customers. Sales of the company’s products precede the retail sales patterns by approximately 90 to 150 days, with this cycle pattern approximately 75 to 90 days for its various generic products sold to mass merchandisers. The apparel retailers experience their highest sales volumes during the fourth quarter in association with year-end holiday purchases. Operating expenses follow the company’s seasonal sales patterns fluctuating with the quarterly sales. However, the company’s first quarter is burdened with higher costs associated with year-end audits, legal reviews, and costs associated with the Securities and Exchange Commission filings, resulting in proportionally higher costs in the first quarter.
History
Talon International, Inc. was founded in 1893. The company was incorporated in the state of Delaware in 1997.
