Investing in recycled PSF plant
The textile industry is witnessing changes across its value chain. Raw material prices, macro-economic factors and regulatory reforms have posed challenges for the industry in recent times. RSWM has rightly shifted its strategy from the volume to the value game. This has resulted in increased demand for value-added products with better profitability and margins. The company is constantly working towards development and promotion of value-added products at relatively low costs to create more value for its customers.
RSWM produces high-performance yarns for preparation of best textiles in various patterns and colors. RSWM’s yarn business is further sub-divided into two segments – Greige yarns and mélange yarns. The company provides the market with a wide variety of yarns ranging from synthetic blended yarn to mélange yarn, cotton yarn, specialty yarn and value-added yarn.
Mélange yarns
RSWM offers mélange yarns produced by combining two or more fibres. It is considered a fancy yarn that is generally used for casual wear, sportswear, business suits, shirts, bed linen, decorative fabrics and other high end home furnishings. The company has been making superior quality mélange yarns for more than two decades under the brand name Melantra.
RSWM has adopted a three-tier strategy for growing its yarn business:
-To increase the value addition by diverting attention towards faster commercialization of new products, furnishing yarns and other value-added yarns, the company has launched a well-defined CRM plan to meet its objective of gaining increased share of business in different market segments across the world. The plan is ready for execution with direct involvement of business heads in different markets throughout the year.
-Reduction in the overall raw material cost incurred by the company is effected by replacing RIL PSF with high tenancy captive recycled PSF in dyed yarns and selective qualities of grey yarns. This is in line with the company’s strategic approach to add capacity of 25,000 TPA in its captive recycled PSF plant from September 2018. It processes waste material into fibre to produce fibre green. This process helps it to minimize the loss of useful resources as disposed PET bottles are converted into flakes, which is then turned into fibres in different denier and cut for spinning into yarn. The use of these fibres helps it to depend less on fossil fuels and natural resources by using waste PET bottles which would have been dumped into landfills or water bodies. This 100% recycled polyester fibre is just like virgin polyester fibre when it comes to performance.
-RSWM has undertaken a measure of cost rationalization in 2017-18 and this exercise will continue in 2018-19. It involves steps to reduce operational costs in whichever way possible to save costs. This cost saving strategy includes energy conservation and increasing efficiency by updating into latest technology.
Investment
RSWM has planned a series of investments in spinning to further modernize the existing plants, enhance capacity and improve the overall efficiency and productivity. The company will invest Rs. 19 crores at the Banswara and Rishabhdev plants for improvement of quality, balancing of production, enhancing the output of value-added products, and conversion from grey yarn spinning to dyed yarn spinning.
A further investment of Rs. 47 crores is under execution at the company’s Ringus plant for modernization and expansion of the spinning unit. This project is expected to be completed by 2018-19 end.
RSWM is investing Rs. 75 crores in its RCPF plant for expansion of the current capacity from 52 MT per day to 120 MT per day, thus increasing the capacity by 25,000 TPA. This is to considerably reduce the spinning raw material cost and thus remain competitive in the market.
The company has also initiated an investment of Rs. 22 crores at the Mandapam unit for increasing the fiber dyeing capacity by 22 MT/day. This is being done to support its strategic plan of converting the Rishabhdev plant having 52,840 spindles of grey yarn into dyed yarn. Another investment of Rs. 7 crores will be made for adding a required machinery to support dyed spinning.
New product development cell
RSWM has set up a new product development cell in all its business segments. It has successfully developed the infrastructure of its NPD cell at Banswara and Gulabpura by setting up various application equipments, including fabric processing. The NPD cell has increased its efficiency in terms of faster shade matching in a scenario where market demands for more shades are met with a shorter waiting time.
Steps are being taken by the marketing team in co-ordination with its NPD cell to increase the company’s market share. This will be done by commercializing value-added products and continuous interaction with the design experts working in the suiting and shirting divisions of the group.