Monday, January 13, 2014

StitchWord Editorial IssueJanuary 2014

Right from the start of the year it was obvious that a serious weeding out is happening, separating the men from the boys… those who are doing well are the serious, committed players, who know what they need to do to grow. Their strategies and expansion plans are on course…

Then there are those exporters I who have already started to shift away from the industry, focusing more on real estate and retail segments. These exporters are no longer serious players and we can expect them to fade away with time… There are some who have failed to read the pulse and are confused on what direction to take… They are sitting on the fringes waiting to be bailed out.

Significantly, over the year Shahi, Matrix, Shivalik, Richa, SPJ Group, all big exporters by Indian standards have gone in for additional capacities; few companies from Bangalore like Voltas Fashions, Four Creations, Sheen Apparels and Snow White and even ITS Creations and Parmeshwar Fashions from Mumbai are also going in for new units or taking on expansions in their existing unit. SM Exports, New Delhi are reportedly jacking up capacities in a big way. Many smaller companies in Jaipur and Delhi-NCR too are now going ahead with investments put on hold for the last few years. 
Also interesting is the fact that a lot of investment is going in to bring processes which were earlier being outsourced, in-house from embroidery to printing.

The confidence of these companies that the future is definitely bright has been justified by many events that have turned the tables in favour of the Indian garment Industry from the softening of the Indian currency, making it very competitive to the Chinese labour conundrum and growing disinterest in Bangladesh due to political and labour unrest, as also safety issues…

Those who had not foreseen the turning point were jolted to wake up from a slumbering pace to fast build up capacities, sensing ‘big’ business coming India’s way.

A survey by StitchWorld involving major technology providers shows that around one lakh machines have been supplied/are to be supplied over a period of one year from January to December 2013. Taking averages in production and UVR, based on past statistics, it becomes obvious that the total exports from India should be around US $ 15.5 billion in calendar year 2013…The real gain once the machines are installed and running to capacity should be around US $ 17.5 billion by the end of 2014… Huge strides no doubt for an industry which has been hovering around US $ 12 -13 billion for the last few years…!

No doubt, the confidence level of the industry is high…, in fact some mega projects that have been long pending are expected to be finalized by the first quarter of 2014, after which the growth could be really steep; importantly many of these projects are from upstarts and not just the growth driver companies.

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