GHCL Ltd., a Noida-based diversified company with its presence in chemicals, salt and home textiles, plans to ramp up its textile division. The textile segment is a vertically integrated facility, wherein the spinning unit located near Madurai, produces yarn, while the home textiles segment near Vapi, Gujarat, turns out bed sheets. In the next two-three years, GHCL Ltd. plans to invest approximately Rs. 500 crores for improvement of the soda ash and textiles segments.
The investment in soda ash is approximately of the value of Rs. 350 crores, while the remaining amount will go towards the Textiles Division. The investment in Soda Ash is expected to expand the production capacity. In the Textiles Division, the investment will be for debottlenecking of the processing capacity and implementing energy conservation measures by installing Green Energy (wind mills) to reduce the carbon footprint.
“In Spinning, our focus is on boosting cost efficiency by installing wind energy which will cater to around 55% of our total power consumption. In Home Textiles, we are planning to debottleneck our processing capacity which will add around 15 million meters of processed fabric to the existing capacity of 36 million meters and also ramping up of our stitching capacity to 30 million meters,” said Mr. R.S. Jalan, Managing Director, GHCL Ltd., throwing light on the forthcoming plans.
Client corner
Its textile business contributed around 40 per cent to the top line in 2015. The company has already collaborated with Laundry and West Point Home’s range of brands, which have helped to improve its image in the market place. “We are working towards better customer mix, geographical mix and replenishment orders in order to increase our revenue,” he said, and added, “we are roping in customers who provide us better realizations and we are also exploring opportunities in global emerging markets like Canada and Australia for establishing our products.”
The sales growth is mainly because of the spread in different markets like the US, Canada, Australia, Europe, the Middle East and Israel. Of the total sales, the US accounts for 70 per cent.
The company keeps exploring and adding new customers in the US and other countries.
In a nutshell
The textiles industry is labour intensive and is one of the largest employers in the country. It is one of the largest contributors to India’s exports, approximately 11 per cent of the total volume. The increasing labour cost in China and non-compliance of a large number of factories in Bangladesh provide India a big opportunity to expand its market share in this segment. Overseas buyers are looking at India as a safe and reliable option for sourcing.
According to the latest reports, the industry realized export earnings worth $41.4 billion in 2014-15, representing a growth of around 5.4 per cent. “The sector needs to be made attractive enough for investors and further investments need to be adequately incentivized. Skill development programs need to be scaled up vigorously. We also need to review our labour laws in order to make this sector friendly for labour as well as investors,” added Mr. Jalan.