Jorge Colindres is no stranger to the apparel industry.

In Honduras, where he is originally from, Jorge worked for different textile companies for over 10 years. Then his life was changed after a Diversity Visa for the United States that his wife applied for on his behalf — unbeknownst to him — came through. After he was selected, he started looking for a job and at the same time SanMar’s Chief Customer Officer, Renton Leversedge, happened to be in Honduras touring the plant where Jorge worked. They stayed in touch and shortly thereafter Jorge was offered a job with SanMar.

Jorge is now the general manager for SanMar in the Americas. This means that he is in charge of the manufacturing and operations of our products that are produced in North, South and Central America. He said he loves getting the chance to find out the various ways of doing processes more efficiently.

“I like to analyze things and figure out ways of doing things better or cheaper. Or figuring different ways that you can put things together,” he said in a SanMar Radio podcast last year. Jorge stated that one would be surprised at just how many people are involved in getting every aspect of the manufacturing process finished, from the yarn, to the cutting, to the sewing and beyond.

Most of his work with SanMar is still in Honduras because the country houses a lot of textile manufacturers. Honduras’ location is favorable for this industry because the largest seaport in Central America, Puerto Cortes, is located there, the town where a majority of the manufacturing takes place is less than an hour to that port. Then once the products are ready to ship, it is only a three-day journey by sea to Miami. When it comes to Honduras, the old real estate phrase, “Location, location, location.” certainly applies here.

One of Jorge’s duties includes helping to maintain SanMar’s sustainability goals. In the region, SanMar is partnered with Elcatex, a company focused on using biomass processes, solar power and other sustainable energy resources to power the plants there. He said that SanMar is on par with other companies in Honduras when it comes to being committed to acting as a responsible environmental player within the industry.

Even after being in the business for more than 20 years, he said he notices that there’s still so much that changes day-to-day. For example, he noticed that there are times when some companies are not growing at all, while some blossom.

“You keep on learning every day. The important thing is to be curious and keep on exploring,” said Jorge, adding that the key is to keep growing and work efficiently on what works.

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