Mafatlal keeps investing in modernisation, capacity hike

Mafatlal Industries Ltd. has for the year ended March 31, 2015, reported a total revenue of Rs. 1,01,351.54 lakhs from operations as against Rs. 91,772.63 lakhs in the previous year. The company has reported a net profit of Rs. 2,437.49 lakhs (Rs. 2,393.38 lakhs).

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Mr. Hrishikesh A Mafatlal, Chairman, Mafatlal Industries Ltd

In 2014-15, the company invested in modernization of facilities and expansion of capacities in the denim and textiles divisions, with greater emphasis on product development and distribution system expansion.

Mafatlal has made focused effort in improving product quality and lowering operating costs. Besides offering, differentiated and value-added products to customers and brands, the company has also taken major steps for strengthening its senior management, with a greater emphasis on performance and accountability.

In 2014-15, Mafatlal invested Rs. 18.59 crores in textiles and Rs. 23.80 crores in the Denim Division on capital expenditure at the Nadiad and Navsari plants in Gujarat. It will continue to incur capital expenditure from time to time based on the requirements for consolidating the manufacturing capabilities in line with market conditions.

The Textiles Division commissioned a new state-of-the-art printing facility at its Nadiad factory in March last. With this addition, the company’s printing capacity has increased substantially. It has also installed new high-speed spinning equipment to improve the yarn quality and reduce operating costs.

The Denim Division capacity at the Navsari plant has been increased from 25 MMPA to 30 MMPA. Investments were made in spinning, weaving and finishing machines. This will reduce the operating costs and give the company the flexibility of making a variety of denim products.

New finishing equipment have also been installed to enable the company to sell higher value-added products and fashion denims both in the domestic and international markets.

The denim industry is facing a situation of overcapacity, and the Division’s margins were squeezed in the year under review. However, in the current year, there are distinct signs of improvement in the Denim Division performance under the new leadership.

With capacities in place, the company has taken several steps to improve its marketing and distribution network. In the domestic market it has added new distributors and customers in different States where it earlier had a small presence.

In exports, the company is enlarging its presence in the Far East, the Middle East and African and Latin American markets. New fashionable and premium products have been launched and the product mix improved.

Mafatlal continues to be the market leader in the supply of school uniform fabrics in India and has been successful in penetrating the Middle East market in this segment wherein designer collections have been launched.