Garment exporters spin on niches
Economic Times, India
MUMBAI: Growing orderbooks coupled with stiff competition from China are pushing Indian garment exporters to go more niche. While the larger garment manufacturers are catering to the Walmarts and JC Pennys, smaller capacities are equipping themselves to cater to specialised orders. These are largely coming from the fashion-conscious Europe.
While US is still India’s most lucrative market, exports to the EU have risen by 20% in the last year. In ’05, India’s share of apparel imports into the EU was 5.76%, according to estimates from French Fashion Institute. Further, EU’s total apparel imports was estimated 4% higher than the previous year, touching about e51bn in ’05.
Companies are now creating different divisions to execute these smaller orders, or outsourcing them to jobworkers, who are independent manufacturers catering only to small-time orders. These orders are largely for clothing with embroidery, prints, hand dyes or zariwork (brocade).
Chairman of Krishna Knitwear Technology, Sanjay Kumar Tayal has made a shift to value addition, by installing embroidery and printing machines, and is looking to further upgrade facilities. He also added that the company outsources its small orders of garment manufacturing if the demand is high.
Rahul Mehta, managing director of Creative Group, the Mumbai-based garment exporter said the company has different divisions to manufacture according to the needs of the customers.
While it manufactures for brands like Replay and Diesel in Europe and JC Penney and Arrow in US, it also take on orders from lesser known foreign brands. “These are however handled by different divisions to provide efficient lead time,†he said.
Most companies in the textile and garments sector are not high turnover companies, as margins in garmenting are tight. The increased orders are seen as a lease of life for many small firms which were being forced to shut operations. The domestic market for clothing is also vibrant and is 1.5 times the export market, vastly increasing the potential of these garment companies. Owing to this, a number of textile firms are expecting to close the financial year with better profits.
