Shahi Exports, India’s largest apparel manufacturer and exporter, released its second Sustainability Report for FY 2022-23. The comprehensive report details the company’s extensive initiatives across key focus areas, including Energy and Emissions Management, Water Efficiency, Chemical and Materials Stewardship, Waste Towards Circularity, Empowered Workforce, Employee Health and Well-being, Fair and Respectful Workplace, and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).
Anant Ahuja, Head of ESG at Shahi Exports, said: “The past year has marked significant shifts in the narrative, perspective, and business of sustainability in fashion. As the industry evolves, Shahi remains committed to conducting our business in a way that reduces negative impact and maximizes the positive impact on our people and the planet. The Sustainability Report is an important tool in helping us track our progress and identify areas where we can make further improvements. The data and insights reported over the past two years have been invaluable in helping us develop more strategies aligned with long-term thinking on our growth journey.”
Shahi was established in 1974 by Ms. Sarla Ahuja, a family-owned company that has grown to become India’s largest apparel manufacturer and exporter. Shahi has three fabric processing mills and over 50 state-of-the-art apparel manufacturing facilities across 8 states in India, with a diverse workforce of over 100,000 people. Vertically integrated operations, a diversified product range, and a strong commitment to ethical operations and environmental sustainability have established Shahi as one of the most preferred apparel manufacturers in the world.
Key highlights of the Sustainability Report: Shahi has moved the needle on Planet targets by:
- Increasing renewable energy capacity to 92.5MW brings it closer to 100% renewable electricity goal by 2026.
- This year, Shahi phased out coal from garment factories and continue to work on coal elimination in mills.
- Achieved Higg FEM verified average score of 78.05%, compared to the global average of 59.67%.
Shahi’s efforts have not gone unnoticed, and have received several international and national awards for the commitment to environmental stewardship, like the International Green Apple Environment Award by The Green Organization and the Excellence in Performance Award by The Confederation of Indian Industry under the ground-mounted solar category.
On the People front:
- Shahi has invested 1.2 million hours in upskilling its employees in behavioral & technical skills.
- The company continued to invest in soft skills training for women through the Gap Inc. PA.C.E. program, reaching 86,000+ women since 2007 and completing 96% of 2024 training target.
- It partnered with the International Organization for Migration (IOM) to support migrant workers and launched the YESS: Yarn Ethically and Sustainably Sourced program to mitigate the risk of forced labor in supply chain.
Manufacturing leadership
Cutting-edge, vertically integrated textile operations are spearheaded by Shahi. Woven and knitted fabrics of premium-grade cotton and yarn are crafted within our world-class, state-of-the-art mills. The sourcing of materials is facilitated by our in-house spinning mill and reputable suppliers.
Approximately 80% of the production capacity of the company’s textile mills are channelled into their state-of-the-art garment factories, where apparel reaching global customers is produced. A seamless design-to-product process is ensured by the synergy between our in-house design, innovation, and laboratory teams. Unmatched visibility and an elevated quality standard throughout the production journey, from yarn to fashion, are guaranteed by these aspects.
Shahi’s manufacturing plants include a spinning mill with a capacity of 10,134 tonnes and 2,704 tonnes Open-end spinning, a knitting and processing unit with a capacity of 10,228 tonnes of Knitting and 9,205 tonnes of Fabric processing capacity is also in place. A wide range of knitted fabrics, including jersey, interlock, pique, lacoste, rib, fleece, French terry, jacquards, and auto stripes, is delivered by Shahi’s Knitting and Processing units. These fabrics are offered in cotton and cotton blends, including lycra, using coarse to fine yarn counts and from 100 GSM to 450 GSM.
Shahi’s Weaving and Processing unit possesses a capacity of 63 million meters of woven fabric and 91 million meters of fabric processing. Cotton, rayon, linen fabric, polyester, and blends are processed, covering lightweight tops fabric to heavy bottoms fabric in various weaves, dobbies, double cloth, and high twist fabrics. The facilities are equipped to produce a variety of finishes, including standard ones like mercerization, brushing, and peaching, as well as highly specialized proprietary finishes like easy-care, wrinkle-free, PFC-free DWR, and silky finish.
In the Garmenting division, Shahi operates 16 units with a capacity of 45 million pieces for ladies’ specialty products, another 16 factories with 53 million pieces for Knit garments, and 19 factories with a capacity of 45 million pieces for Men, Bottom, and Denim division.
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Harish Ahuja, Managing Director and Chairperson of Shahi Exports, said: “Over the years, Shahi has always demonstrated a deeper understanding of the changing landscape of our environment and the role that sustainability as a concept plays in this shift. As Shahi turns 50 next year, we believe sustainability efforts will increasingly underpin our success and drive industry-wide transformation. We will continue in the spirit of collaboration, share our best practices, and advocate for collective action.”
The fashion industry is at a critical crossroads in a world grappling with the economic slowdown, social inequality, and the looming threat of climate change. These threats pose a challenge and present opportunities for innovation to better our planet and communities. Shahi recognizes the pivotal role manufacturers play in the value chain and seeks to actively engage with our stakeholders, including brands, retailers, and employees, to co-create solutions to these challenges.
Our sustainability journey is guided by our ‘Responsible for People and Planet’ framework. Last year, we released our first Sustainability Report and set ambitious targets for the future. This year’s report titled ‘Moving the Needle’ demonstrates our unwavering commitment to achieving and exceeding our goals.
We have moved the needle on our Planet targets, increasing our water recycling capacities and renewable energy capacity to 92.5MW, bringing us closer to our goal of 100% renewable electricity by 2026. This year, we phased out coal from garment factories and continue to work on coal elimination in mills. Our efforts have not gone unnoticed, as we have received several international and national awards for our commitment to environmental stewardship. These endeavors are also reflected in our Higg FEM verified average score of 78.05%, compared to the global average of 59.67%.
Shahi joined Fashion for Good and Organic Cotton Accelerator to drive innovative and scalable solutions. We have always had a strong focus on research and development. Our mills, laboratories, and factories serve as testing grounds for groundbreaking innovations in materials, chemicals, and even new business models. As an early investor in DXM, an on- demand manufacturing platform, we were thrilled to see a successful pilot with Carhartt, shipping custom clothing directly to the end consumer from our factories.
On the People front, we continued to invest in soft skills training for women through the Gap Inc. P.A.C.E. program, reaching 86,492 women since 2007 and completing 96% of our 2024 training target. Similarly, the number of supervisors enrolled in the supervisor development program, STITCH, doubled in FY 2022. The rollout of Inache, an anonymous and digital grievance redressal mechanism, reached 74% of our factories, ensuring our workers have a voice and a platform to address their concerns. We actively sought to identify new areas of work through need assessments. This resulted in the vision screenings of 13,400 employees and the launch of another flagship program, Bsafe, which fosters an understanding of different forms of harassment and remediation methods among employees.
We made progress toward the FY 2025 targets for our communities in all five focus areas: migrant support, health, education, skill development, and environmental sustainability. We also set new ambitious goals to improve infrastructure, access, delivery, and quality of education for 10,000 children and to improve solid waste management practices in communities for 150,000 beneficiaries by 2025. Our commitment to empowering communities is guided by our founder’s values and strengthened through partnerships with expert regional non-profit organizations. We also actively collaborated with international experts and organizations to further our People objectives. We have partnered with the International Organization for Migration (IOM) to support migrant workers and launched the YESS: Yarn Ethically and Sustainably Sourced program to mitigate the risk of forced labor in our supply chain.
As Shahi turns 50 next year, we believe sustainability efforts will increasingly underpin our success and drive industry-wide transformation. We will continue this spirit of collaboration, sharing our best practices, and advocating for collective action.
