By Ashish Mehrishi, Chief Marketing Officer, Birla Century
“When the wind of change blows, some people build walls, others build windmills.” It is a famous proverb that we must have heard in many times, it stands true to the current situation of post Covid-19 implications on the Indian economy especially due to the strategic shifts led by the land – border territorial disputes that we are seeing over the past few months.
Dodging this Pandemic, overcoming the challenges of “Make in India” and trying to take the benefits of China plus one strategy is the need of the hour for the country. Covid may have just magnified the pre-existing risk to the economic situation in India initially by the affected consumption risk, but over a period of time the scenario changed to a far more positive direction in the domestic as well as International markets the moment buying patterns and consumer behaviours changed.
India launched some stimulus packages like Atmanirbhar India and policies like the “Production-Linked Incentive Scheme”, in place to absorb this opportunity and attract more foreign businesses to the country.
The post pandemic scenario has aroused renewed interest to enhance the supply chain resilience, by diversifying manufacturing activities that are moving out of China to other Asian countries. India among the other Asian countries stands out as an attractive option thanks to its strategic location, a large domestic market, skilled labour, low labour costs, etc. Thus, making India as a China plus one option to the buying requirements of all International brands.
At the outset, US apparel & Home furnishing store sales have raised by 3 per cent and 8 per cent respectively this year and China’s import share to US has reduced from 30 per cent to 22 per cent. According to expert reports China plus one strategy caused by the repeated devaluation has resulted in at least 20 per cent shift of business from China to India.
In the years to come, the bigger question would be “Who wins the production game?” It will be interesting to see how the production world map would look in the next five years!
As for Birla Century is concerned, we have already experienced this gradual shift in the last few months, some of the sustainable materials that we produce like Organic Cotton blends, Viscose blends, Hemp & Organic Linen have seen a steep rise in the sales. Recycled Cotton, Polyester and Viscose have become the most favourable material for domestic as well as International market. Thus, we are now in the process of adopting strategies to find alternative supply chains and be a part of more resilient India and become trusted partner option in the China plus one Game!