Alps Industries, with a heritage and history of making a landmark in innovations, creativity and aesthetics, is dedicated to creating home textile products right from bedding, window dressings, decorative pillows and accents, table linen and kitchen linen. Manufactured in its most modern and state-of-the-art facilities, these products retail in almost all leading stores and feature on the pages of the premier shopping catalogues across the globe.
Alps has been a pioneer in developing and promoting eco-friendly and sustainable textiles since last few decades, including products made out of vegetable dyed fabrics, organic cotton and recycled cotton fabrics.
The company has spread its wings in most of the markets like the US, the UK, South-East Asia, Australia, New Zealand and the Middle East, and has emerged in the last few years as a serious supplier of blackout cotton and natural upholstery fabrics. It has also introduced some new high value products in the export segment like multi-head embroidered fabrics, outdoor fabrics, etc.
In order to contribute significantly to the company’s turnover, the value-added made-ups division, a high fashion category, was started recently. This product needs continuous innovation and creativity to create new designs. In order to revamp its fashion accessories division (FAD), Alps has added various intimate blends to provide innovative products, including metallic-based fabrics, intricate jacquard patterns using ancient ethnic patterns, Persian motifs and contemporary geometrical patterns, the humungous range of printed scarves, stoles, shawls and sarongs to its product range.
FAD has also introduced new products with a spectacular array of specialized weaves and patterns using electronic dobby machines. The division is also striving hard to tap new buyers from the US and Europe by introducing more than 360 varieties in embellished products, including Aari, Dabha, Jardosi and Sequin, along with the variety of hot fix studs and crystals, different varieties of tassels, laces, fringes, etc. Its anti-bacterial “Sleep Dry” baby product brand has created a niche for itself in the baby products segment.
In the yarn division, Alps Industries is focusing on some of the key markets in South America, China and in the domestic market. The company has taken various steps to introduce a variety of value-added yarns like core spun lycra, slub yarn, multi fold and multi count yarn, etc., in its product range. Besides it plans to increase yarn exports to different countries.
Vista, one of the major brands of the company, is the market leader in the window dressing range of products, which are well known in the domestic market for its world class quality and innovation. This product range consists of various new products like hardwood flooring, hospital curtain track and monsoon blinds, Lexus, Murano and Folliage, Naturons- roll-up and Roman blinds scontour, cellular and Sheer Dim-out blinds under the new variety of fabric for roller blinds.
In order to expand its product range for open spaces like large windows, terraces, balconies, glass houses, etc., the company has introduced a new range of awnings, FTS and skylight systems.
The financial performance of the company shows a positive trend. Its EBITA increased to Rs. 425.14 million during 2012-13 as compared to Rs. 1,286.31 million in the previous year. The contribution of the company’s three major businesses towards its turnover which is Rs. 7,002.26 million (Rs. 6,686.09 million in 2011-12) is the home furnishing and fashion accessories division (19.87 per cent), yarn (75.77 per cent) and architectural products (4.36 per cent).
Capacity expansion
To meet the current situation the company has been adopting latest technical developments in order to upgrade itself. In its Fashion Accessories Division, in Ghaziabad, an impressive collection of hand as well as machine-embellished products has been developed by the company’s technical team. Its production capacity has been increased and a printing facility is proposed to be implemented in the near future. At its Haridwar unit, the yarn dyeing vessel capacity has been raised after modifying its spindle height.
With the above-mentioned efforts, the company will enjoy the benefit of improved quality, productivity, and cost saving and will project its image in the global market as a manufacturer of world class yarn.
Meerut facility
In the furnishing fabric segment, various products are being produced at the company’s Meerut unit. Alps has created a niche for itself in terms of its products, which are in a much different league from those of other Indian exporters who are producing mainly polyester and polyester blends. It is more into cotton and organic products, cotton fabrics, cotton linen, viscose linen blends and other natural fibers, as the worldwide demand for natural fiber curtains and upholstery is increasing.
Its new innovative products like washable cotton and brushed cotton, pigment dyed, washed look upholsteries, to name a few, have received good response from its clients. This is the only unit of the company with the blackout coating facility in India. Blackout curtains have a very big market in residential and contract business. The unit has been very successful in creating value-added products in jacquard blackout and cotton blackouts.
Contract and hospitality business (hotels, guest houses and public areas) requires blackout curtains, and the unit is catering to that market well. In the automotive fabric segment, the company has technical tie-ups with leading OEMs worldwide for its world standard seat covers.
The company’s research department has some of the most sophisticated testing equipments from world’s leading manufacturers, which can assess the quality parameters of the incoming raw materials, processing, finished products and other consumables.