Plant modernization across value chain to assist in better toplines
The Creative Group is a leading textile manufacturer with an annual turnover of Rs. 1,000 crores. Mr. K.N. Singh, Executive Director, is the man behind the 30 per cent growth registered by the company in the last five years.
In an interaction with our Special Editor Ganesh Kalidas, Mr. Singh has explained the company’s growth strategy and its future plans.
The four-decade-old group had its humble start as a garment merchandising company for export of garments to the US and Europe. It is into manufacture and sale for domestic and export of home furnishings, polyester bundled carpet yarn, yarn dyed shirting fabric and garments like shirt, trouser, night wear, boxer shorts, etc.
Creative Group’s popular brand Portico New York has its presence in the domestic market across all the formats of home furnishing retailing. Started around the year 2000, Portico New York has emerged as the most prestigious lifestyle brand in the home textile category in Indian retail industry.
Leaving behind other players in the race, Portico New York has marked its presence at about 1,000 + retail stores. The price band ranges from Rs. 999 to Rs. 15,000 per sheet set and so the brand is all set to making its product’s reach and penetrate into Indian households. Today reputed designers like Manish Arora, Neeta & Nishka Lulla and others have also contributed to the in-house design capabilities of Portico New York making the brand reach all segments of the retail market.
Creative’s Textile Division has a strong footing, though the real challenge is to keep up with the changing fashion trends in any market they are present. The Creative Group is well equipped to adapt and adjust to the changing trends and needs of the consumers.
With 350 MT yarn processing capacity per month, weaving capacity of one lakh meters per day, 15,000 bed sets export per day for just US market, bleaching and dyeing capacity of 40 million meters of wider width fabrics dyeing and printing facilities to support, 300 MT of polyester carpet yarns capacity per month, with facilities for yarn dyeing, fabric weaving, processing, made-ups stitching with over 8,000 skilled employees directly/indirectly; with around 14 plants across India, Creative’s textile division is fully integrated and fundamentally strong in any manner one looks at it.
Big time modernization of their plants at Vapi, Daman, Mumbai and Bengaluru is on cards and ongoing seamlessly without affecting the daily production numbers. The old processing machines are being replaced with brands like Osthoff, Senge, Goller pre-treatment range (CBR/Mercerising/Pad Steam/Washing Range), Monforts CDR & Finishing Line, Ramisch Guarneri Calendar Machine, etc., to name a few. With most of the modernization is complete with the processing part of the units as on date, Creative’s textile division has forged itself as a formidable strength in their segment of business.
Creative’s textile division has an exclusive facility to weave wider width and processing the same for sheeting, dobby and jacquard fabrics meant for international markets. This exclusive facility includes yarn dyeing, stitching and made-up processing too. Clockwork everyday 15,000 bed sets get exported through the year.
With capacity expansion in weaving and modernization to close the gap that exists today between their weaving and processing capacity also to meet demand with the expansion in garmenting process on cards, both at their Vapi and Dammu plants; Mr. K.N. Singh is confident of maintaining the 30% annual growth rate until 2020 and beyond.
When quizzed about the effects of the Government’s new GST on Creative as and when it gets rolled out, Mr. K.N. Singh feels positive at the same time would like wait and watch for the finer details and fine prints before commenting on it. Although he feels it should simplify the taxation to a large extent. That by itself is a plus. He also adds that the fabric manufacturing doesn’t come under the gambit of taxation as it is exempt from any kind of indirect tax, only yarn and garment export and for domestic market based on the M.R.P. attract indirect tax of different rates and nomenclature.
The demonetization drive has seemingly not affected the textile topline numbers in the third quarter per se he adds, when queried about the effects of demonetization on its sales figures.
Mr. K.N. Singh dreams of expanding the retail reach to every village in this country and make Portico a complete household name. With a brand like Portico, the price range and backward integrated capacity up his sleeve, it is seemingly possible to achieve a dream of that sort easily.
Creative as a total group has widespread business interests and presence in areas like real estate, power generation, organic fertilisers, etc.
Creative Textiles is a well-known player in India for producing bed sheets. It had its process house with conventional machines. When the management of Creative Textiles decided to make investment for modernisation and expansion of production, Mr. K.N. Singh, Executive Director, started interacting with A.T.E. His main attraction towards A.T.E. was to get the latest technology available in the global market. His idea was to buy from one shop all his requirements, and A.T.E. supplied a complete package of machinery for its process house which includes ETP.
The real challenge for A.T.E. was to install the machines one by one without stopping their production. We made a proper plan on board and the same was implemented with the help of our engineers. Goller has supplied bleaching, mercerising, pad-steam and washing ranges which started giving the desired results right from day one. Also the customer had similar experience with other machines like Osthoff singeing, Monforts’ E Control/shrinker, Monfongs stenters/curing range, Guarneri Technolgy’s Nipco calender, Color Service dispensing system and ETP from A.T.E. Envirotech. We have now the satisfaction of successfully executing a bed sheeting project, and now the market has further gained confidence in A.T.E. as a one-stop solution provider.