The emergence of India as the second largest textile exporter in 2013 has encouraged textile players in the country to widen their production base extensively. In order to meet the growing garment export demand, KPR Mills has initiated expansion plans in its garment business. Besides expanding capacity of its existing facility, it has added up a new unit near Tirupur, which is known as Asia’s largest knitwear cluster.
KPR Mills has announced an annual capacity addition of 10 million pieces at its existing garment facility to make it 40 million pieces (single shift). Since the major infrastructure for the purpose is already in place, its operation is expected to commence in the first quarter of FY15. It would result in creation of direct employment for about 1,000 people.
KPR Mills has also announced setting up of a new garment facility with an annual capacity of 12 million pieces at Thekkalur, near Tirupur. Land has already been acquired and construction work has commenced. The new facility, expected to be operational in the fourth quarter of FY15, would result in creation of direct employment for about 1,200 persons.
All these capacity additions are projected to enhance the overall garment operation of KPR by over 50 per cent in two years. KPR has also announced revival of operations at its state-of-the-art processing unit now backed by an ETP with a capacity to process 9,000 MT of fabrics per annum.
The company performed exceedingly well in 2013-14 by clocking a turnover of Rs. 1,960 crores compared to Rs. 1,493 crores the previous year. Net profit was Rs. 130 crores (Rs. 100 crores).
KPR’s journey into textiles began in 1984. In 1989, the group ventured into garment exports. Today it is a leading garment exporter as well as the largest vertically integrated apparel company engaged in manufacturing and marketing readymade knitted garments, knitted fabrics and cotton yarn, including value-added compact & melange yarn.
KPR Mills has a cumulative capacity of 3,53,088 spindles to produce 90,000 MT of yarn per annum, a knitting facility to produce 21,000 MT of fabrics per annum, a garmenting facility to turn out 63 million pieces of ready-made knitted apparel per annum (operating double shift), a state-of-the-art processing facility to process 9,000 MT per annum and 66 wind mills with aggregate power generation of 61.92 MW that meets 75 per cent of the company’s power requirement through Green Energy.
Consistent expansion with sustained focus on delivering value-added products to customers, combined with the recent diversification drive, has started yielding the desired results. Sensing the prospects for value-added yarn the company has already expanded its compact yarn capacity and has established a melange yarn unit at its Karumathampatti plant with a capacity of 16,128 spindles. Expansion and modernisation of the Sathyamangalam spinning plant has already been completed.