From its incorporation in 1987 as a small weaving mill, Kohinoor Mills has over the last 31 years evolved into one of Pakistan’s largest vertically integrated textile units with approximately 1,820 employees. Spread on a 90-acre state-of-the-art facility near Lahore, the unit supplies over 70 million meters of world-class grey, white and dyed fabrics to leading fashion brands and retailers around the globe. The company is involved in three major businesses – weaving, dyeing & finishing and energy.
Kohinoor Weaving (KW) is the flagship division of the company. Set up as a small 48-loom project on a green field site in 1988, it has now grown into a modern facility with 258 high-speed air jet looms from Toyoda and Picanol.
The division produces over 40 million meters of grey fabric per annum, which is partially consumed upstream by the Dyeing Division, while the rest is exported to clients in Europe and Asia. KW has also diversified its operations into Jacquard and Dobby fabrics for the local fashion industry and luxury clients in the US and Europe.
Kohinoor Dyeing (KD) was set up in 2002 after a strategic decision by the company to move up the apparel value chain and compete with processing mills in Europe where manufacturing costs were becoming uncompetitive. After 15 years of operations KD is now a market leader in cotton stretch fabrics for the fashion industry.
Through its R&D facility it has developed innovative fabrics and hand-feel finishes which have enabled it to become a key supplier for leading global brands like Zara, Levi’s, Ralf Lauren, American Eagle and Next.
The division produces 4 million meters of dyed, white and print fabric every month using cutting edge European machinery from Benninger and Monforts.
Weaving Division
Keeping in view the growing overseas competition and rising raw material prices, which dampened performance of this division, the management has been taking earnest steps to improve performance, including focusing on new business avenues in local and export markets. The management expects that these steps would yield positive results in the future.
Further, in line with its BMR plans to keep in step with improving production technologies, the management has installed an additional 84 high-speed state-of-the-art air jet looms in this division. This has resulted in 60% increase in the Weaving Division’s existing production capacity. All the 84 looms installed became operational in the second half of FY 2017-18. This 60% increase was immediately absorbed by the Dyeing Division. This inter-division sale was eliminated in the combined financial statement of the company which gave an impression that the top-line has remained somewhat stagnant. However, recently the division has entered new export markets, and the higher sales will soon start reflecting in the company’s performance.