FRIENDS visit to

Textile Industry has made an informal group called “TEXTILE FRIENDS” under the guidance of few industry stalwarts. Mission of the group is “To study, formulate & suggest holistic policies which are required to strengthen the entire value chain from farming, ginning, , and to garmenting which can be suggested to various government bodies.”

Vision is to form a quick responsive group (across entire value chain) to highlight discrepancies in Govt. policies & international trade barriers, effecting one or all sectors of the textile value chain.

To reduce the missing link in entire TEXTILE VALUE CHAIN. Member’s details are:

1. Mr. Suresh Kotak from Kotak Commodities 2. Mr. M.L. Jhunjhunwala from RSWM 3. Mr. Sharad Tandon from Stadon Consulting 4. Mr. Shiv Kanodia from Bharat Merchant Chamber 5. Mr. Manish Daga from COTTON GURU 6. Mr. Avinash Mayekar from Suvin Advisors 7. Mr. Arvind Sinha from TAI 8. Mr. J.B. Soma from TAI 9. Mr. Anil Kumar from SRTEPC 10. Ms. Jigna Shah from Textile Value Chain Media

Indian well known fact is about rich culture and heritage but with diverse clusters. This diverse cluster value chain makes difficult to be cost competitive to neighboring/ Asian countries. Though Government is doing their best for the interest of industry, still Textile is secondary and not priority sector neither for Government nor for Consumer (Actual Consumer)

Textile industry need to proactive, should be self reliant, self motivated. Industry itself needs to step forward and do some constructive changes in entire value chain segment. With these views, few industry stalwarts met in month of August 2015 and decided to do some constructive step for industry, not just to talk but action it out to make industry and economy more profit oriented, more globally competitive. This informal meeting had converted to Informal Group: “TEXTILE FRIENDS” without any government or association support.

TEXTILE FRIENDS discussed and brain storm during its first meeting on 31st August, 2015. This brain storm resulted into improve the weakest link in chain i.e. Weaving and Processing. Other segment of value chain not required immediate attention. So, during meeting we discussed to visit Ichalkaranji Cluster market, which is biggest cluster for cotton weaving fabrics with richest quality fabric.

The journey begins from here…!!!

Before moving to Cotton Weaving cluster, TEXTILE FRIENDS visited CIRCOT to know their excellent research capability in cotton & other natural fibers. This made us think that being sitting in , we are still ignored our most developed research institute. Industry need to recognize the potential of institute and develop synergy between industry and research institute. We are trying to become the linking support to the industry and institute.

TEXTILE FRIENDS visited Ichalkaranji on 16th October, 2015, 2nd Field visit to understand the market dynamics. Group members visited are:

 Mr. Suresh Kotak - from Kotak Commodities ;  Mr. M.L. Jhunjhunwala - from RSWM;  Mr. Sharad Tandon - from Stadon Consulting ;  Mr. Shiv Kanodia - from Bharat Merchant Chamber;  Mr. Manish Daga - from COTTON GURU ;  Ms. Jigna Shah - from Textile Value Chain Media.

Objective of the group is to understand the problems of the industry hear the voice of manufacturer/ power loom sector owner. We as industry well-wisher wants to help cluster to grow industry. We met few company owners for understanding the realities of sector.

Details about company visited as follows: Kindly note our entire trip of Ichalkaranji is sponsored by Ken Enterprises Pvt. Ltd. with ownership of Mr. Nikunj. Special thanks to him.

 First company visited was M/S. Su-Parshwa Group interacted with his Managing Director. His inputs are for the cluster are as follows :  Market: No demand in market, No buyers.  Power: subsidy at Rs. 3-4/kg. Power cost Rs. 3.50-4/unit, Gujarat state have Rs. 7-8/unit  Ex minister Mr. Prakash Awade very helpful to weaving industry in Ichalkaranji.  TUFS subsidy stopped was very helpful when up to 30 %  24 meters 1997, 24 2014 Picanol m/cs (AirJet, 16 Rapier)  Sell grey fabric to Ahmedabad, Delhi, Kolkata  Both sale purchase and job work, 80 % job work. Max 40x40, 60x60  Production : Avg. 50 x 50 pick, 7 lakh meters/ month  Export: negligible

Suggestions  Huge Process house required in Ichalkaranji  Currently 68 process houses, most of them are outdated.  To start with, need process house of 1 Lac meters/day  Shuttless loom: 5-7000 Airjet, rapier, Plain: 1.25 L, 1000 Airjet in pipeline  Local weavers do not know what happens to their grey fabric.  Awareness seminar for export through promotion council  Quality standards for export competiveness

 Second company visited is Baldev Textile Mills (P) Ltd met with Mr. Ankitji Sonthalia MD, Finance/Production Head Mr. Ram Purohit. Their views are:  Local manufacturer are not aware about market trends. They are depending on agents for their daily inquiries.  Need a big process house.  Good process houses are making profits.  Processing charges in Ichalkaranji for piece (fabric): Rs. 70 + % (ETP Charges)  Main reason for Ahmadabad is processing facility is at Rs. 60/kg  Quality and consistency advantage in Ahmadabad. Power is at Rs. 2.83/unit  Export: Timely delivery is challenge. Cycle is 90 days.  Job realization: 13 to 14 paisa/pick, cost 12 to 13 paisa/PICKS  Ram Purohit stated that No awareness about SIDBI scheme in “Make in ” of finance to SSI’s @ 8.5 to 9 %. Need to verify.

Solution given:  Reduction in cost of finance and hence production.  Market capitalization and diversification by innovation.

 Third company visited, M/S. Ambrish Sarda Group, views stated below:  TUFS: subsidy reduced from 30% to 15 %  Government: State subsidy of 25% is closed from 2011  Need: product development and market development.

 Forth company visited is Vishnu Corp, met Mr. Arun Kumar Goenka, his assessment is of market based on Trust & credit deficit, ultimately Market is growing.

 Group met various local associations & DKTE College. There are round of discussion during the meet. Few suggestion given, few association reacted views are as follows:

 Mr. M.L. Jhunjhunwala: observed that the industry at Ichalkaranji is highly geared towards cotton. Mr. Jhunjhunwala called upon all the weavers to try and increase use of manmade /blended to give a better product mix to the consumer.

 Change yourself as per customers’ requirement/demand. Markets have bottomed out cotton & PET has bottomed out due to MSP and petroleum prices.

 Association Representative: How do we compete against mills who are themselves weavers? Suggestion given: If yarn prices fall, cloth is bound to fall. Solution would be in industry 80 % of People doing job work. Innovation, diversification is major challenge to industry.

 Mr. Shiv Kanodia: Understand your USP (Unique Selling Point). We can be masters of small quantity as an exclusive / premium product. Standardize job work on basis of quality & cost.  Mr. Suresh Kotak: by giving example of Bayer crop science, taking premium of 20 cents, he was trying to convince that Innovation is the only key to success. Be innovative, rule the world.  Ms. Jigna Shah: suggested for cluster branding. Synergy with industry, association and world class educational institute like DKTE can play a very important role for development of branding.

In short, textile industry need to realize that Ichalkaranji’s annual turnover is Rs. 8000 Crore with world richest grey fabric. We need to support the cluster and give necessary help to get the mark of Ichalkarani fabric to international market.

We request few industry leaders, Associations, Government official to come forward & Join hand with us to make Indian textile clusters stronger, independent & world competitive.