The company is truly passionate about responsible manufacturing and sustainability is at the core of all that it does
BKS Textiles is one of the leading manufacturers and exporters of home textiles, institutional linens and woven fabrics. The company, located in Palladam near Coimbatore, works with leading home textile brands in the US, UK, Europe, Australia, Canada and Japan. In an exclusive chat, Sudha Anand, Director of BKS Textiles, says that that FY 2021-22 has been good for the company. “Hospitality linen product category sales recovered in 2021-22 and we have grown 20% despite some major challenges such as increased cotton prices and very high freight costs,” she adds.
Throwing light on how the company handled the pandemic period over the last two years, Sudha states: “The first year of the pandemic was very challenging for us. We had sales loss as most of our customers were from the hospitality sector. With the sector being badly affected during the pandemic, we suffered order cancellations, reduced sales, etc. We also faced various challenges till the mid of June 2021, including adopting to the new normal such as work from home, installation of safety measures at the workplace, vaccinating all our employees, maintaining customer relationship virtually without personal meetings, and so on.”
“From June 2021 onwards after relaxation of lockdown restrictions and improved vaccination cover, we started to have stable orders coming in from all customers, particularly the hospitality sector. Though the present situation is challenging for the textile industry due to very high cotton prices and freight costs, we are hopeful that the global supply chain issues will improve in the coming months and the new price levels will be accepted by the market. We are looking forward to the overall situation normalising in a year’s time,’ she says.
The general feeling in the industry is that the home textile segment has done quite well in the pandemic period with increased order flows to Indian manufacturers from many global brands and retailers. Has BKS Textiles benefitted by this change in sourcing strategy? Replying in the affirmative, Sudha says: “Yes, home textiles have done well during the pandemic. For us, we could see an increase in flow of enquiries from the mid of 2021. Once global travel resumes to the pre-pandemic levels and with various FTAs that are in negotiation coming into effect, we are hopeful of good business opportunities from new and existing markets.”
A sound infrastructure focus has been one of the cornerstones of BKS Textiles’ success story. When asked about the current total manufacturing capacity and infrastructure of the company, Sudha informs that the company is a vertically integrated setup with in-house weaving, processing and sewing capacities to cater to the home textiles market. Soon it will be able to manufacture up 12 lakh meters of bed linen fabric per month, which is about 2.5 lakh sheet sets. The company’s product range in home textiles includes bed linens for home and hospitality, table linens and kitchen linens.
A New Launch
The company recently launched ‘Organitrack’, a new product range for sheeting. Elaborating, Sudha informs: “Organitrack, launched during the Market Week in New York this March, is a traceable bedding solution that uses 100% organic cotton in its manufacture. This cotton used is forensically tagged by Haelixa AG, Switzerland, hence establishing proof of origin and securing transparency across the entire supply chain. Third party testing verifies the integrity of marked Organitrack products and authenticates their history, giving retailers and brands the comfort of standing behind the product claims made. This forensic traceability aspect of Organitrack is what sets it apart from similar organic products. The relevance of traceability becomes even more accentuated at a time like this when there have been cases where conventional cotton has been fraudulently passed off as organic and when ‘green washing’ in the industry is rampant.”
Responsible Manufacturing
A strong commitment to sustainable manufacturing has been another forte of the company. Elaborating on BKS Textiles’ goals for sustainability, Sudha notes: “BKS Textiles as a company works around the adage ‘responsibility first’ and is truly passionate about responsible manufacturing. Sustainability is at the core of all that we do, and we are conscious, sensitive and responsive to the environment and society. We work with and promote a variety of sustainable fibres that have a low impact on the environment. We have a zero liquid discharge effluent treatment plant and we successfully recycle and reuse 93% of our water. We have built a ‘green’ certified state-of-the-art manufacturing facility.”
“Our goals for sustainability revolve around afforestation and we are developing 5,000 Neem trees and 2,000 Trees of other varieties at a tree plantation in Palladam. We also lay emphasis on women empowerment with 70% of our work force comprising women along with energy sustainability. We currently generate power from wind energy to meet over 40% of our total requirement and are looking to ramp this up further. We call this our ‘AWE’ inspiring sustainability roadmap,” she adds. Highlighting the key reasons why customers should consider sourcing from BKS Textiles given that the global home textile segment is highly competitive with many Indian and global textile manufacturers competing for a share of business, Sudha says, “We believe several parameters set us apart from other competitors.”
“We work with the right spirit and mindset which enables us to place responsibility towards people and the planet first. We are passionate about creating intellectual property with brands related to sustainability and the circular economy. Forging long-term, meaningful partnerships with our stakeholders – customers, suppliers and employees – is something we are very conscious of. We have a strong penchant for consistently maintaining high quality standards. Finally, we have a geographical advantage over a lot of our competitors – we are very close to Coimbatore, a hub of textile spinning and weaving in South India. Plus, we are in close proximity to three major seaports and two international airports,” she adds.
Another major recent trend has been the growth in e-commerce and increased focus on the Indian domestic market and consumers for home textiles, which is a large market but remains untapped. BKS Textiles has on its part come out with initiatives to leverage on e-commerce penetration. “We have a home linen brand called ‘Swaas’ with three retail shops, out of which two are in Tirupur and one in Palladam. We sell online through our own website and we also sell through Amazon, Flipkart and Snapdeal. Our intent is to offer high-quality, well-designed products that include bed linen, towels, mats, curtains and table linen that are relevant to the Indian customer. We plan on continuing to ramp up both our online and offline presence,” Sudha elaborates.
As regards expansion of the home textiles’ range, Sudha says: “We have recently bought a state-of-the-art width width processing house in Palladam which will give us a monthly processing capacity of 12 lakh metres. We expect to commence commercial production at this facility by the end of the year.” Not one to rest on past laurels, the company has set ambitious growth targets to be achieved by 2025. “We envision BKS Textiles to be a major player in bed linen exports from India. We expect to double our sales from USD 25 million to USD 50 million. We will have around 10 brands for sustainable home textiles that will focus on the usage of ‘low impact fibre’ with reduced inputs of chemicals, water and energy that follow the principles of circularity. We also intend to ramp up our efforts of reforestation and further increase our utilisation of renewable wind energy to cater to at least 60% of our total energy requirement.”