Textile sector makes Coimbatore proud
The ‘generation next’ entrepreneurs of Coimbatore intend making the city an ideal destination for sourcing textiles and apparels thus helping it to gain a prominent place in the global textiles arena. Best known for its entrepreneurial spirit and cotton the city can no longer be called a spinning capital as GenNext is transforming its textile industry by going in for downstream value added products, readymade garments and branded products. The industry has lured many first generation entrepreneurs from diverse backgrounds who have taken to textiles — S Ravindran of Rajave textiles who is basically a production engineer, fibre agent N Nithyanandan (Purani Textiles), rice trader N Thiyagarajan (Sri Venkateshwara Spinning Mills) and powerloom owner P Rangaswamy (Birin Spinning).Billed as India’s largest cotton spinning hub, contributing nearly half the country’s cotton yarn output, the textiles industry here has been dominated by a handful of large family business houses such as Lakshmi Mills that began its operations almost a century ago. The going was expected to be tough for newcomers, as textile is a labour and capital-intensive business with thin margins. But new entrepreneurs have emerged successful with a simple initial strategy for sustenance — start with hosiery yarn and then move to specialised products to ensure that they can stay the course even in a downturn. A case in point is Purani Textiles, started in 1999 as a viscose yarn manufacturing unit. The company is also foraying into cotton yarn manufacture and value-added yarn production by installing compact spinning system as part of expansion.
Purani is currently producing 2,500 kg of viscose and blended yarn from its existing 7,000 spindles. Plans to add another 10,000 new spindles over a year’s time at a cost of Rs 25 crore is in the offing. “The expansion will increase our daily yarn output from 2,500 kg to 6,000 kg on completion”, its director Nithyanandan told ET. Besides selling its yarn in traditional markets like Mumbai, Ahmedabad and Tirupur, the company has been bold enough to venture into unknown geographies by exporting 25% of its production to the South East Asia, notably Japan.
A manufacturer of premium yarn, Ambika Cotton Mills (ACML), is finalising plans to enter into high quality garment business for export market, confirmed P Chandran, managing director of ACML. Despite the climbing rupee effect, the GenNext seems to be undeterred as they are gearing up to explore newer markets as far as Africa and going for consolidation, moving up the value chain, and delivering better quality at effective rates and minimum lead time. According to C Venkat Subramanyam, director, Veda Corporate Advisors, the first generation entrepreneurs are very open to these kind of experiments. “Leave alone entering unknown territories, even in the funding pattern these people are ready to experiment,” he said. Companies like KPR Mills and SP Apparels have gone in for private equity placements — a way of fund raising that was not at all viewed as a good option by the early birds.
It is a good beginning, but considering the uncertainties in government policies and the present slump in the US economy (US being the largest importer of Indian textile products), the minnows have a long way to go. NEW THREAD • New entrepreneurs have emerged successful with a simple initial strategy for sustenance — start with hosiery yarn and then move to specialised products • GenNext seems to be undeterred by the rising rupee as they are gearing up to explore newer markets like Africa, going for consolida-tion, moving up the value chain, and delivering better quality • Companies like KPR Mills and SP Apparels have gone in for private equity placements — a way of fund raising that was not at all viewed as a good option by the early birds.
