Coimbatore-based Sri Kannapiran Mills Limited is a leading producer of cotton yarn and blended yarn, producing 80 tons of yarn per day. KG Fabriks, set up in 2005, is a division of Sri Kannapiran Mills which produces 20 million meters of denim fabrics per annum.
KG Fabriks is a Zero Liquid Discharge (ZLD) and Zero Solid Discharge plant using less than 15 litres of water per kilogram of denim fabric manufactured. The company uses proprietary iTop and iWash technologies which result in dye uptake of 85% as against the industry average of 65%. KG Fabriks markets denim fabrics in three registered brand names- ‘Green Dnm’ (true sustainable denim), ‘Product Zero’ (Super sustainable denim) and ‘Nature’s Blue’ (most sustainable denim). Product Zero uses recycled cotton and recycled polyester as raw materials while Nature’s Blue is produced with natural plant based indigo.
“The yarns and denim fabrics that are produced at our factories are Green Products certified by GreenPro. The denim division, KG Fabriks, is the first company in the textile weaving and processing sector to get certified as GreenCo Gold. These certifications which talk about our wholesome sustainability efforts, help us to get into the international brands in a better way,” said Srihari Balakrishnan, Managing Director of the company.
“We are ZDHC level 1 certified and ensure all chemicals used are sustainable materials. We provide relevant international certifications like GOTS, OCS, GRS, RCS, BCI, Oekotex for brands requiring the same”, he added.
Sustainability focus
Speaking about the sustainability philosophy of the company he mentioned, “We have been certified by Sustainable Apparel Coalition’s Higg rating which is at 94% in Higg FEM and 93.9% in Higg FSLM. We are Great Place to Work certified and recognised by various brands in their environmental and social audits. We use more than 51% of sustainable fibers and 60% of renewable energy.”
“This only proves that sustainability for us, is like meditation and we make every effort to contribute to make our mother earth a safe place to live in.”
“Our inclination to try new products resulted in a tripartite collaboration between the Ministry of Textiles and South India Textile Research Association (SITRA) to produce, for the first time in the world, natural plant based machine dyed indigo denim fabrics, using green alkali and biodegradable reducing agent,” he remarked, before adding, “We extensively work with designers across various brands and do research and development to ensure that we continually develop new products as per current market’s trends, be in yarn or denim fabrics,” Srihari Balakrishnan said.
Smart apparel
According to Srihari Balakrishnan, ‘Smart’ apparel produced with the integration of technology in clothing for healthcare is one technological advancement that will go in leaps and bounds in near future. Elaborating further on the topic he said,” Post Covid, athleisure has seen a tremendous increase in popularity. Digitisation of payments and Artificial Intelligence (AI) used in fashion industry to enhance the consumer experience in the stores have resulted in a comfortable buying behaviour, thus enhancing the shopping experience. Use of block chain mechanism for supply chain transparency has ensured complete traceability in the supply chain.”
Digital denim website
“At KG Fabriks, we have a digital denim website which is revolutionizing the way of fulfilling merchandisers’ and designers’ fabric requirement. Our website is one of the kind in this world which shows each style in a sample folder view, garment view and digital draping view in different washes on real life style models, enabling designers to take a conscious choice of what styles suit them best, ensuring sustainability of sampling,” he added.
Hangtag
The company also gives hangtags of its three brands to the garment manufacturers, which are supplied according to the number of garments produced per despatch. “These hangtags have a scan code at the back and when the consumers scan this code, they are taken to the website of KG Fabriks, certifying that the garments are made from True Sustainable Denim Fabric of KG Fabriks,” Srihari Balakrishnan stated in conclusion.
