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The Textile Magazine
SEPTEMBER 2011
the great greatgreat grandson of
Khushalchand. Lalbhai was born
around the time when the first
textile factory in the city went into
production. The first manufactur-
ing company of the Lalbhai fam-
ily, Saraspur Manufacturing Com-
pany, was established in 1897. It
started with producing cotton yarn.
When the Swadeshi Movement
intensified, the second company,
Raipur Mills, was established in
1905. Due to the untimely death of
Lalbhai Dalpatbhai, the reins of his
businesses were handed over to
his young sons, including 17-year-
old Kasturbhai Lalbhai. Kasturbhai
started the first large-scale textile
mill under the name of Asoka Mills
in 1920 with a capital of Rs. 12 la-
khs at a time when the largest mills
in the region were built with not
more than Rs. 5 lakhs.
The year 1930-31 saw the sec-
ond resurgence of the Swadeshi
Movement coinciding with the
great depression. While other en-
trepreneurs reacted to the situa-
tion differently, Kasturbhai saw this
as the decade of prosperity and
growth and established the flag-
ship Arvind Ltd. in 1931 with an
authorized capital of Rs. 25.25 la-
khs. Kasturbhai also floated mills
for families of his three sisters
under the name of Aruna Mills in
1928, Nutan Mills in 1931, and
Ahmedabad New Cotton Mills in
1938.
With this expansion, Kasturbhai
occupied the position of the biggest
textile magnate in the country. Few
groups could claim to have made
such great strides during one of
the worst periods in India’s indus-
trial history. After a continuously
successful period of four decades
in the pre-Independence era, the
group entered other fields such as
dyes, pharmaceuticals, chemicals,
etc. The first diversification started
in 1939 with Anil Starch Ltd. Atul
Products Ltd. was established in
1952 for manufacturing textile-
related chemicals and dyestuff.
Atul formed joint ventures with
Ciba-Geigy called Cibatul, with
American Cynamid called Cyna-
mid of India and with ICI of the UK
called Atic Industries. As time pro-
history