The Indian textile industry is witnessing substantial growth. After the new structural changes in the Indian economy, the players in each segment of the textile industry have gained pace. One of the most thriving segments is home textiles.
Sutlej is one of the most notable players in the home textile vertical. With an evolving product portfolio of value-added products and maintaining high operating efficiency, the company has made its mark in the industry.
The company turnover grew from Rs. 809 crores ($112 million) in 2008 to Rs. 2,510 crores ($350 million) in 2018. Maintaining an annual growth rate of 12%, its niche products have helped the company withstand the volatile changes in the domestic market brought about by demonetization and GST, while proving successful on the export front. Sutlej has a wide international clientele and supplies products to markets across 65 countries and generates around 30% of its revenue through exports.
Sutlej is a renowned player across borders, catering to the curtain, upholstery and made-ups segment in its home textiles vertical. It enjoys a major share in the US, the UK and European markets. The company also engages with emerging markets as in the Middle East and new markets like Australia, New Zealand, North America and Africa. It has also emerged victorious with its new ventures in these countries.
Expanding its reach and capacities, the company acquired American Silk Mills for the brand named ‘Heritage’, aiding the expansion of its global footprints. Achieving such success is not just by targeting markets and expansion in terms of products, but by focusing on the bigger picture by targeting all the channels in a market. It is widening its reach in terms of channels like hospitality, furniture, manufacturers and retailers.
The company is focused on innovation and adheres to the evolving needs of the customer. It keeps up with the trend by devoting significant recourses for product design. Hence the company team constantly works towards development of new products. Widening its knowledge base, the company has also tie-ups with European designers for creating new and attractive designs to match the requirement of the contemporary market. The company has just come out with several beautiful designs which would be showcased at Heimtextil, Frankfurt.
Heimtextil is one of the biggest world trade fairs, for home textiles and presents a platform for players to display their latest innovations and designs. Sutlej has been a regular participant of the event and is all set to showcase 250 new designs this time. These include a variety of fabrics and prints like sheers, semi sheers, printed sheers, fancy sheers, digital prints, burnouts, foil printing, printed velvet, embroidered fabrics, warp printed fabrics, fancy yarn fabrics, modal and linen fabrics.
In addition to this fabulous range of new products, the company will also be displaying its exclusive range of performance fabrics as well as the latest collections of its American counterpart American Silk Mills. The entire team of designers and marketing representatives from both will be present at the event. The company has almost doubled its stall size this time.
Sutlej develops original designs with the help of its in-house product development design team, in collaboration with European designers. The designs are made to suit the current market needs and carefully chosen to enhance the lifestyle of its customers. A home textile is a highly popular segment as people wish to decorate their homes with pleasing designer fabrics.
In an exclusive interview, Mr. Updeep Singh, Deputy CEO of Sutlej, said: “Our team works on aligning the product offerings to suit the market demand. The synergy with American Silk Mills gives us excellent credibility in designing. We create a fresh product in terms of design, yarns, and colors, which gives us a competitive edge”.
The company, with its customer-centric approach, has been able to retain the clients and maintain good relations with them. Many of the customers value the association on account of the reliability to deliver consistent product quality due to its in-house manufacturing of value-added yarns and fancy yarns. The company policy is extremely flexible for meeting the customer requirements and minimizing the lead time for development of samples as well as bulk deliveries.
In 2007, Sutlej had a manufacturing capacity of 2 million meters per annum in curtains and upholstery fabrics, which has gone up 10 million meters now. As an evolving segment, home textiles provide excellent space for any organization to expand.
Commenting on this opportunity, Mr. Singh said: “We see a lot of growth opportunities in this segment and hence have gradually scaled up the manufacturing capacity over the past few years”.
On the company move to tap these opportunities he added: “In order to improvise our product offerings in the value-added segment, we are planning a huge investment in 2019”.
India is a developing market and offers tremendous scope for success to the innovation-driven players. It is one of the largest markets to have such potential. Mr. Updeep Singh sees high growth potential for Sutlej as well. The company has reached a commendable position in the industry today, and its aim is to cement this position further in order to attain greater heights.
Through Heimtextil the company aims to display its capability to the potential clients. It has its great team of leaders working towards catering to the market. It keeps its focus on enhancing the factors that facilitate the company growth in home textiles.