DALLAS _ Arun Agarwal owns and runs a half-billion-dollar company called Nextt.
You've probably never heard of him or his company, but chances are you're in bed with him.
The 45-year-old CEO of Nextt sells sheets and bedding accoutrements to just about every major U.S. retailer and specialty store _ from Wal-Mart, Costco, Kohl's and Nordstrom to Neiman Marcus _ through private labels and well-known brands.
Nextt's bedding is made in Agarwal's homeland of India by Alok International, a publicly held textile giant with a factory complex that spans 600 acres outside of Mumbai. Alok's weaving shed is the world's largest under one roof, taking up 14 acres with 14,000 jet-air looms churning out 1.6 million linear feet of fabric a day, while the adjacent embroidery facility makes 5 billion embroidery stitches daily.
Nearly half of Alok's total operation is dedicated to Nextt products that include sheets, pillow covers, quilts, comforters, throw pillows and more recently, towels.
So when retailers ask Agarwal whether he has enough capacity to source their orders in a timely fashion, he assures them that he can.
Agarwal is a highly energetic entrepreneur who has brought technology and innovation to an industry that isn't known for either.
"If I'm going to compete, I'm not going to win as the cheapest," Agarwal says in his tiny office in Dallas' Design District. "At first, it was about being cheapest. So I was always 10 cents away from being fired. There is a difference between cheap and value. I have to have both, and I do."
His trading partnership with Alok started with a handshake in 2008. It's become a symbiotic relationship where worldwide sales and marketing are done through Nextt and manufacturing is done through Alok.
Michelle Gloeckler, currently chief merchandising officer for Academy Sports, worked with Agarwal when she was senior vice president over the home division of Wal-Mart and traveled to India with him to see the Alok factories six years ago.
"Nothing like getting to know somebody and their values as when you travel out of the country together," says Gloeckler, who left Wal-Mart in August. "The things that I saw in the factories, whether it was worker conditions or quality assurance measures, gave me a lot of confidence in the products that Wal-Mart was buying."
