Polish knitting company Sun of Gaba, which is 100 per cent privately owned by Dariusz Gajewski and Barbara Gajewski, was officially registered and established in 1990, but its official start date was February 1991 when the company took part at fashion fairs in Poznań, Poland for the first time.

Beginning

In Poland, the period from 1990 to 1992 was difficult, especially for textile producers. This was caused by an influx of  imported textiles from countries such as Turkey, Thailand, Korea and others. This coincided with the decline of communism in Poland where the domestic market did not want to buy anything that was produced in Poland as all products were reputedly bad. Competition with Middle and Far Eastern products was so difficult that many companies collapsed or changed their production profile.

In such a market situation, Sun of Gaba was established. The first machine was more for home family production: the Passap Electronic 6000, bought in Switzerland. In the beginning, the company purchased five such machines and produced an unbelievable eight thousand pieces monthly. Everybody in that small company worked very, very hard, 24 hours a day including Saturdays and Sundays. Luck was with us when we created a few examples of pullovers which led to an extremely positive response. Unlikely as it is, we had been producing the very same pullovers for nearly two years changing only the colours, length and some other details. The buyers were generally traders from the markets situated at the Polish-German border.

The turning point in Sun of Gaba’s history was meeting with Mr Calosci’s Italian trade company Calosci srl, when they exhibited Protti industrial knitting machines at Polish fairs in Poznań, Sun of Gaba bought a few second hand machines and all proceeds were poured into the development of the company.

Today

The mean result of our taken steps is an origin of our own network of the shops in the largest cities of Poland. The network expands basing itself on the franchising. The first shop this type was opened in Olsztyn, to this days we sale there only our firm’s articles. To run the conditions of all the network and to control the turnovers we use the electronic connection. It makes easy for us to react immediately on changes of the demand tendency. We succeed in support of the equipment in particular shops on level 800 to 1.000 pcs. He another profitable result of our work is conquest of the group of the constant partners to secure for us stable conditions of work and to create the picture of our company in almost all Poland’s region. After we concentrated our attention on domestic market our export dropped to level 17 per cent of our sale. However last days SUN OF GABA, among other things, thanks to the support from the Europeans Community, began the promotion on the world markets again. We particularly are interested to find a specialised agents, a trade representative whom we could charge a presentation of our collections and representing our business in the individuals countries. After we have taken the splendid experience in assurance the quality requirements of a customers as KAUFHOFF and JEGGER we feel perfectly ready to competition on all the world. 

Our staff

The defining feature is the fact that nobody in our company has had any formal training in knitting: we taught ourselves the difficult art. Of knitting and programming. Our 40 young staff work hard making excellent progress with their skills and improving their knowledge. Today our staff are very conscious of what we do and what our aim is. Some members of  staff, who five years ago were unemployed or had rather unsatisfying work, are today some of the best. Some of our employees spent a few weeks in Italy, in the Capri region, and in Reutlingen in Germany learning knitting art.

Organisation of the production

Although we had witnessed how the Italian organisation  produced knitwear, in a way which lets you be very specialised at every step, we could not afford to be organised in that way. Our company produces an article from A to Z which means that we have to knit, stabilise, sew, control, pack, create new models etc, all under one roof, all under our control. Such organisation allows us to react immediately at any step of the production process. What is the advantage? Only 0,03 per cent of reclamation.

What we produce

Sun of Gaba knitting company is specialised in ladies’ fashion and fashion for girl’s knitwear. Everything can be produced on flat knitting machines: pullovers, tops, tunics,  waistcoats, cardigans, coats, dresses, skirts, leggins, blazers, caps, scarves etc, and all are available in a full range of sizes  and sizes and colours. We can, of course produce men’s pullovers but only on client demand and according to their designs, as we do not generally produce fashion for men.

The collection

There are 3 registered trade marks.

·       Sun of Gaba    

The first registered trade mark. The articles with these marks are addressed to wide circle of buyers. First of all it is concern to the sweaters. They characterised on reasonable prices, unsophisticated materials – a larger share of acrilic. Not every models are made in fully fashion system. The models are repeated during many seasons. The quantity is not limited.

·       Classic Sun of Gaba   

Another registered trade mark, light of ours eye. The line, our designers are concentrated on it. A potential buyer is a mature woman who likes simplicity, elegance and comfort. The Goods are manufactured from sophisticated yarns, mostly from renowned Italian firms. The collections contains 80 to 160 models, and they enable our customers to complete sets together with a shawl and a cap. In spite of our customers the series are closely limited.

·       Igaa Young Fashion   

Registered in 1997 the year 1997 the trade mark means collection for teens. The idea of the creating the collection was born under influence the experiences reached on the collaboration with KAUFHOFF. The young collection has found pretty large of buyers, but the line was existing only two years. We have given up to produce it because of  lack of manufacturing powers, and more important for us success of the line “Classic Sun of Gaba”.

The recapitulation

To sum up we can say that Sun of Gaba with its own network of licensed shops belongs today amongst the best known knitting companies in Poland. The authentic success of  our firm is fact the considerable part of our export contracts are realised with own trade marks.

The present document came into being with the financial support of the Europeans Community. The opinions expressed in it are SUN OF GABA’s opinions and in no case they will not to be treated as the official position of the Europeans Community.