There cannot be a bigger coincidence than this. Just when we were preparing this special feature on the Newsmakers 2017-18, the biggest announcement was made by Trident Group. The company has proposed Rs. 7,200 crores investment in Madhya Pradesh across both the textile and paper vertical and set a vision to achieve $3 Billion in turnover by 2025. This is possibly the most ambitious investment and growth target set by an Indian textile company.
Welspun has already announced its vision to become a $2 billion company by 2022 and is backing this with investment in manufacturing home textiles, rugs, carpets and technical textiles. Himatsingka is setting up one of the largest terry towel plants after successful commissioning of the world’s largest spinning plant. There are many other companies that are at various stages in their investment, expansion and growth plans.
Thanks to the Central Government policies supporting growth of the textile industry and incentives offered by many State Governments, we are in a phase of a significant growth opportunity, be it yarn, fabric, homes textiles, apparel and technical textiles. The 120 year old Rai Saheb Mohota Group is a classic example of how such old textile companies are reinventing themselves to take advantage of the emerging opportunity.
Mohota Industries, as it is renamed recently, has announced investment of Rs. 550 crores in expanding capacity and in setting up of a textile park in the Vidharba region. Nitin Spinners will be investing Rs. 650 crores for fabric manufacturing to support the growth in the apparel segment.
This is truly a Golden Era in the history of the Indian textile industry. What is equally important is that companies should shed their conservative image and build their corporate and brand identity. This is important for many reasons, from recruiting people to raising funds to establishing a strong retail presence to tap the growing domestic market. The indian textile industry has clearly lost a generation to the IT, Auto, Pharma, Engineering and other sectors. It is time for the industry to showcase their strengths and capabilities in manufacturing, innovation and most importantly the strong position that it occupies globally as an exporter of high quality yarn, fabric and finished goods.
Here is an attempt to put together information on most of the important companies, their investments, expansion plans and vision for the future.