Trident Ltd., formerly Abhishek Industries, has embarked on a Rs. 1,200-crore expansion plan which will be implemented by 2013. One of the world’s largest terry towel manufacturers and yarn spinners in the country, the company is exporting its products to over 20 countries, including the US, Europe, Australia and New Zealand.
The company commenced terry towel manufacture with a 66 loom capacity in 1998-99, which increased to 388 looms by 2010-11. It strengthened its spinning capacity from 17,280 spindles in 1993-94 to 224,448 spindles in 2010-11. These consistent capacity investments balanced the company’s spinning and weaving capacities, enabling it to meet the growing customer needs.
The revenues of Trident’s textile business amounted to Rs. 2,237.53 crores in 2010-11, of which home textiles accounted for 43.6 per cent.
The company has an installed capacity of 2,24,448 spindles and 1,920 rotors. It specialises in a wide range of yarn products. While a portion of yarn is consumed captively for the manufacture of terry towels, the rest is sold in the domestic and international markets.
The company has six manufacturing units, in Barnala (Punjab) and Budni (Madhya Pradesh), with state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities (ring spinning, carding, combing, open ended spinning and yarn dying). The product range services the needs of the fashion sector and knitting, weaving, denim, hosiery, shirting and suiting industries.
Tridents’ terry towel and towelling product range comprise piece-dyed dobbies, yarn-dyed, single and double jacquards, unidyed jacquards, yarn-dyed stripes, weft inserts and checks, terry and velour finish, beach towels, bath sheets, bath towels, hand towels, guest towels, face fringes and bath mats.
In 2010-11, the company could increase sales from 91.3 million pieces of towel to 105.2 million pieces and increased sales from 309 MT of greigh towel in 2009-10 to 1795 MT. The company has introduced and trademarked a new product by the “Air Rich” TM in the US market and has commenced test marketing in Japan through a local collaboration.
The company continuously undertook product enhancements to widen acceptance. It won various global awards for superior product quality, including the JC Penney Award for ‘Best Quality for Home’ and the JC Penney Innovation Award.
In the yarn segment the company manufactures 100 per cent cotton, blended, special open-end, organic cotton, core spun, eli-twist, compact, slub-yarn and specialised yarn comprising gassed mercerised, water soluble, air rich, bamboo/cotton, corn cotton blended and 100 per cent dyed yarn.
Trident augmented per MT realisation from Rs. 120,569 in 2009-10 to Rs. 174,346 in 2010-11 and has entered Brazil and strengthened its presence in Bangladesh.
The company has undertaken further expansion in its yarn spinning facilities which envisage setting up of 275,904 spindles and 2,040 rotors, including other balancing equipment at an outlay of Rs. 11,170 million. Commercial production at these facilities is expected to commence in a phased manner and to be completed by the third quarter of 2013. Further, the company proposes to set up an open-end yarn spinning expansion project by installing 1,344 rotors at an estimated investment of Rs. 733.5 million. Of this investment, Rs. 17 crores is proposed to be incurred on modernisation of existing yarn facilities.
In 2010-11, Trident completed terry towel capacity expansion. It has installed 14 new looms. With this expansion, the total production capacity of the terry towel division has increased to 388 looms. Commercial production at the new facilities commenced in January last.
The specific areas in which R&D carried out by the company are: New product development in textiles, increasing water absorption of cotton yarn, high bulk yarn, mutli count, multi twist, T400, Pc spandex, quickdry towels, air rich towels, hi-bulk zero twist, 2-ply air rich, reversible towel, eucalyptus fibre blend towel, rose fibre blend towel and banana fibre blend towel.
The company keeps upgrading technology to manufacture high-quality products to suit demanding customer requirements. Quality is benchmarked with the Uster Statistics scale (global leader in textile quality control). It enjoys quality certifications from Egyptian, PIMA and FLO cotton and recognition from CUC, IMO, GRS, ISO and OKEO.
Trident has installed textile looms from Toyota and other leading suppliers and has state-of-the-art yarn equipment from LMW, Rieter, Murata, Zinser and Savio.