For generations embroidered fabric has been associated with royalty. Hand embroidery and eyelet embroidery, with its intricate designs, embellishes a fabric. As technology took over human lifestyle, embroidery has come within the easy reach of the common man.
True to its name, Pioneer Embroideries Ltd. has grown from a modest beginning in 1991 to become India’s largest manufacturer and exporter of embroideries, braided laces, torchon or bobbin laces, raschel laces and other garment accessories.
‘Hakoba,’ a complete embroidered clothing, continues to be the No.1 retail brand of Pioneer Embroideries. It is marketed as ladies dress material, kurtas, sheeting and sarees, and find key usage by garment manufacturers and home furnishings. Cotton and guipure laces are also popular in the international fashion industry and home furnishings.
Having constant interaction with international customers, tracking global fashion trends and with huge production capacity, Pioneer offers an innovative range of embroidered fabrics with sequins and cording, laces, guipure, motifs and collars. With advanced computerized designing, punching, sampling and in-house facilities for yarn doubling , twisting and processing, the manufacturer is able to produce intricate and delicate embroidery on a wide range of casual and high fashion fabrics in cotton, silk, polyester, viscose, linen, tulle, net and organza.
The company has state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities for embroidery fabrics and laces made from Schiffli and multi-head machines at Sarigam (Gujarat), Naroli (Silvassa), Coimbatore (Tamil Nadu) and Thane (Maharashtra), besides a product development centre at Gurgaon (Haryana) and a process house at Sarigam. Its braided laces divisions are located at Karad (Silvassa) and Coimbatore. The company’s polyester dope dyed filament yarns are manufactured at Kalamb (Himachal Pradesh) and its blended spun yarns are produced at Kallakurichi (Tamil Nadu).
In the year ended March 31, 2013, products like embroidered fabrics witnessed healthy growth in demand. However, with the increase in the number of unorganized players in the sector, competition is becoming stiffer, resulting in pressure on prices. The earlier part of 2013 saw a fall in demand from Western Europe and the US, one of the largest consumers of garments in the world, due to their domestic economic scenario resulting in Indian garment exporters facing tremendous competitive pressure on pricing. This, in turn, affected the embroidery market, and focus was shifted to lower-cost products. However, the depreciating rupee has made Indian exports more competitive, and with further revival in the international markets, the company hopes to recoup the lost opportunities. Pioneer was able to achieve improvement in its performance despite its old machineries, higher raw material costs and growing competition from the unorganized sector.
The company’s focused attention on building operating efficiencies, optimum utilization, regular maintenance of available equipments and improved marketing efforts have aided its performance. It has also relied on its designing capabilities to lower costs and offer a product-mix which helped in maximizing the contribution.
The company has registered a turnover of Rs. 24,049 lakhs for 2012-13, which is 16 per cent more than in the previous year. It earned a profit of Rs. 1,489.32 lakhs as against Rs. 860.82 lakhs. The company’s dope dyed polyester yarn (DDPY) business reported an increase of 14 per cent in turnover at Rs. 17,809 lakhs against Rs. 15,613 lakhs in 2011-12.
Pioneer was able to establish its micro denier high bulk yarns in the market as a substitute to nylon and cotton yarns, thus mainly targeting the bath mats and carpets industry segments. Its embroidery and laces division continued to show improved performance with a higher turnover of Rs. 5,385 lakhs against Rs. 4,031 lakhs and an EBIDTA of Rs. 660 lakhs against Rs. 142 lakhs.
With an outstanding operational infrastructure, superb craftsmanship and obsession for the best quality the manufacturer has an impeccable reputation and carved a permanent niche in the industry throughout the world. Pioneer’s international roster includes clients from North America, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East and Africa. With its qualified and highly motivated design development team that endeavours constantly towards generating new designs to match the latest trends across the globe and with state-of-the-art software and machines used by trained personnel for monitoring the output to meet exact standards, the company has produced over 40,000 designs for its customers to select from.
Research and development, especially in the DDPY segment, has always remained central to the operations of the company. Inter-fibre replacement usage, particularly in the non-apparel industries like furnishing, carpets and other niche segments, has been given top priority. Pioneer aims to meet increasing market demand and to achieve strong earnings growth by focusing more on a high-margin product mix. The operating performance is thus expected to improve further in the coming years.