Targeting global leadership in home textiles
Trident Ltd., the flagship of the Trident Group, a $1 billion business conglomerate with its global presence, operates in two main business segments, textiles and paper, with manufacturing facilities in Punjab and Madhya Pradesh. The company is the largest manufacturer of wheat straw-based paper with one of India’s highest yarn spinning capacities. It is also engaged in marketing a range of home textile products catering to all market segments, brands, department stores, home improvement outlets, mass merchants and institutional customers.
With the stabilisation of its new towel facility at Budni in Madhya Pradesh and the recent foray into bed linen, Trident has become one of the largest integrated home textile producers in the world. With an installed capacity of 3.66 lakh spindles and 5,500 rotors capable of manufacturing 8,400 tonnes of cotton and blended yarn per month, the company has nine manufacturing units in Barnala (Punjab) and Budni (Madhya Pradesh) with state-of-the-art facilities (ring spinning, carding, combing, open-ended spinning and yarn dying) sourced from globally-renowned suppliers. The product range services the needs of the knitting, weaving, denim, hosiery, shirting and suiting segments.
Trident increased its towel manufacturing capacity to 688 looms in FY15. The plant at Budni is the biggest standalone terry towel facility globally. Presently, the company has a production capacity of 88,775 metric tonnes of towel per annum at optimum utilisation with a balanced product mix, and a bed linen production capacity of 43 million metres.
Trident exports its textile products to more than 60 countries, contributing 78 per cent to the total revenue of Rs. 37,843 million. The home textile products are sold under brand names like Trident Everyday, Trident Home Essentials, Trident Classic, Trident Indulgence, Trident Organica, Trident Play, Trident Bath Buddy (kid’s range) and Trident Cuddlies. These brands together cover the entire price spectrum under which bulk of the branded sales happen.
“Over the next few years, the company would focus on improving the contribution of home textile products to the overall revenue mix by enhancing our presence in the domestic market as well as deepening our penetration in the export market. This should enable us to deliver healthy earnings growth, going forward”, said Mr. Rajinder Gupta, Chairman, Trident Group.
The company continues to launch innovative home textile products, leveraging in-house research and design. It aims to leverage on its national presence for home textile products with product availability across 1,200 retail stores, 120 multi-branded outlets, all major e-selling portals and major TV-commerce channels. It caters to prominent global retail brands like Ralph Lauren, Calvin Klein, JC Penney, IKEA, Target, Wal-Mart, Macy’s, Kohl’s, Sears, Sam’s Club and Burlington, among others.
Cutting-edge technology
Since textiles business is in reality a technology-driven one, Trident has over the decades invested in cutting-edge technologies, fully convinced that the productivity and efficiency upsides would shrink payback faster than any other initiative. The result is that the company has partnered with trusted global textile technology brands like Karl Mayer, Toyota, Staubli, Benninger, Rieter, Muratec, LMW, Trutzschler, Saurer, Savio and Uster while investing in expansion and diversification. Some of the upsides generated from these investments have comprised higher productivity, lower energy consumption and qualitative consistency.
The highlight of its world-class Budni manufacturing complex is the zero liquid discharge plant, which ensures that not a drop of waste water or effluent is discharged in the open. This plant comprises the most modern effluent treatment and reverse osmosis plants that treat and reuse effluents. This has helped rationalise water and chemical consumption, strengthening business sustainability.
Another major expansion
Trident aims to enhance the proportion of value-added products in the product mix and has embarked on another major expansion at an investment of $250 million to set up an integrated bed sheeting project of 500 air jet looms at Budni. This will enable the company to deliver about 1,20,000 metres of bed sheeting fabric (equivalent to 17,500 sheet sets) per day.
The new unit will be backed by a spinning plant of 1.90 lakh spindles to make the sheeting plant a vertically-integrated, self-reliant facility capable of manufacturing top-quality bed sheeting products. The project is expected to be commissioned in the second half of FY16.