As Champalal Agarwal, the founder of Aarnav Group and Sumit Agarwal, Director, Aarnav Group, reveal, the company is all set to make major investments to increase its production capacity and chart a path for a stronger presence in both domestic and international arenas
The numbers say it all: Aarnav Group, which is among the top two standalone textile fabric processers by production capacity in Ahmedabad, has targeted to touch revenues of around Rs 1,000 crore in the fiscal 2021-22, up 30%, as against a turnover of about Rs 700 crore in the fiscal 2018-19. That speaks for the vision and mission of the company. The Aarnav Group, which is made up of two companies, namely, Gopi Synthetics (P) Ltd. and Aarnav Industries (P) Ltd., expects this revenue growth to come about through capacity expansion as well as an acquisition, which is expected to fructify in March 2020.
Numbers apart, equally interesting is the history of the company. Champalal Agarwal, the founder and now Chairman, Aarnav Group, came to Ahmedabad in 1970 from Rajasthan and worked for a process house for around four years before entering the textile business by running 12 looms on rent in 1974. Within two years, he also started getting job work orders for printing of greige fabrics. The foundation of Aarnav Group was laid by Agarwal and family by setting up their first fabric printing and processing mill in 1980 in the name of Omkar Textile Mills (P) Ltd, followed by a second fabric processing unit named Gopi Synthetics (P) Ltd. in 1984.
Later, following an amicable split in the Agarwal family, one brother acquired the rights of Omkar Textile Mills while Champalal Agarwal retained Gopi Synthetics. In 2012, the facility of Omkar Textile Mills, located adjacent to Gopi Synthetics, was acquired by the group and merged with the newly incorporated company, Aarnav Industries (P) Ltd. All put together, the group companies’ activities are now concentrated on 15 acres of land, with a built-up area of 1 million sq. feet right in the middle of a buzzing industrial zone of Ahmedabad. It provides employment to around 1,500 people. Aarnav Industries also an ETP plant and a canteen facility on the premises.
Impressive Leadership and Capacities
“In total, our group has eight rotary printing and six flatbed printing machines with a capacity to print around 225,000 metres per day. Additionally, we also have fabric dyeing capacity of 75,000 metres per day. We are mainly into printing and dyeing of cotton fabrics for bottom weights, shirting, dress material and home textiles,” informs Sumit Agarwal, Director, Aarnav Group. The company also has a weaving unit at another location, in which 112 Toyota-make e-shed (electronic shedding motion) automatic looms have been installed. These produce around 50,000 metres of fabric per day in widths of up to 210 centimetres.
These machines have been comprehensively designed for greater energy savings, higher productivity and improved ease of use, and give the highest quality of fabric. Along with this, they also have installed sizing and warping machines sourced from Karl Mayer at the unit. In terms of operations, Champalal Agarwal continues to be guiding force behind the rapid growth of the group. With an impressive experience spanning 50 years, he looks after finance and sourcing of chemicals, dyes and griege fabrics.
Sumit Agarwal has done his MBA in International Business from University of Western Sydney, Australia and has been connected with the group since more than 20 years, with experience of managing sales, production, personnel and administration. Led by this rich and varied experience, Aarnav Group supplies home textile products like bed-sheets, quilts, dohars, comforters and duvet covers to various Indian brands and has recently launched its own brand of bed-sheets under the name of Ammaya, which is currently available only online through various e-commerce majors like Amazon, Flipkart , Snapdeal, Shop Clues and PayTM, to name a few.
Aarnav Group has a professional team of designers with an abundance of creative energy to generate beauty in the fabrics. The company has also initiated strict quality control measures to ensure that there is no compromise at any stage, right from the raw materials to packaging, when it comes to fulfilling the requirements of its partners. In home textiles, the plant has a capacity to print and dye up to 100,000 metres per month and up to widths of 300 centimetres on both rotary and flatbed with repeats of 64, 82, 92.5 and 102 centimetres. They can process fabric from 100 TC to 1,200 TC.
World-Class Equipment
With its firm belief in using state-of-the-art machinery for production to ensure that the finished products are supplied with zero defects, the company has sourced its equipment from world-renowned manufacturers. For instance, its continuous bleaching range machines are from Dhall and Menzel; mercerising machines from Menzel; and rotary machines from MHMS, SPG, Laxmi and Ichinose. The finishing stenter machines have been bought from Motex while its calender machines are from Andritz Kuster; brushing machines from Lafer; singeing machines from Osthoff; and laser engraving Ppant from SPG.
The group also has an in-house stitching unit with 24 Juki brand computerised line stitch, interlock and zigzag sewing machines with a capacity to stitch 40,000 bed sets per month. Now, plans are afoot to install another rotary printing machine, supplied by a Japanese company named Ichinose, with a width of up to 72” and offer nine colour printing possibilities. According to Sumit Agarwal, there are only 7-8 Ichinose rotary printing machines installed in India and the machine has a slope due to which there is a better printing sharpness.
“When we shared with an Indian sourcing office of a top US garment brand that we were buying the Ichinose machine, they told us to connect with them as soon as the machine goes on-stream. After installing Ichinose, we will all together have nine rotary printing machines,” Agarwal shares. As for its international footprint, the group currently exports its fabrics to Sri Lanka as well as other countries in Europe, East Asia, the Gulf regions and USA. The company also received a National Export Award from the President of India in 1995 for ‘outstanding export performance’.
Future Plans
Sharing their future plans, Sumit Agarwal adds that they will expand the weaving capacity once the expansion for fabric printing is complete by March 2020, and will add a further 50,000 metres of weaving capacity, thereby doubling the production capacity. As part of its expansion plans, the group is also planning to set up a cotton knitted fabrics’ unit with a production capacity of 400 tons per month. By March 2020, the total printing and dyeing capacity of the group is also set to reach 350,000 metres.
They have already started connecting with various export houses and home textile brands in various countries with a plan to have a foothold in exports within the next six months. The group plans to concentrate on exports and is open to supplying home textile fabrics as well as finished products. According to Champalal Agarwal, it is unfortunate that smaller countries like Bangladesh, Vietnam and Turkey are forging ahead of India in production and exports of garments although India has a legacy in textiles going back by several decades.
Meanwhile, Sumit Agarwal is hopeful that the Indian textile market will revive in 2020 and also considers the future of the Indian textile industry to be bright, which is why they have planned capacity expansions and also an acquisition. And above all, the company is also known for its social commitments. The family is a trustee of three reputed educational institutes in Ahmedabad and is also associated with a charitable trust that extends a helping hand to all communities for their social engagements. “It is important to have all your values and ethics in the right place to be able to create a niche for yourself and your company,” Champalal Agarwal states.