After Europe, KPR Mill eyes US mkt

KPR Mill Ltd, a Coimbatore-based garment, fabric and yarn manufacturing company, plans to enter the US market for exports of its garments and the company is presently in negotiation with some major US-based garment brands.

The company is also planning to sell its apparels in the domestic market after the proposed expansion of its facilities to be completed by December this year. At present the company exports all its products to Europe.

"We are planning to enter the US market for exports after the expansion of the company is completed. At the moment we are in the negotiation process with some US-based garment brands. These brands include some sports garments majors," said P Nataraj, managing director, KPR Mill Ltd, told Business Standard.

He, however, did not reveal the names of the companies saying it might hamper negotiations.

"Till now we were exporting our readymade knitwear apparel to European garment brands like Carrefour, Penneys, Pom-tex and C&A along with other brands. We have expertise in manufacturing high-end fashion garments and the demand from the US-based garment brands for such apparels is growing. We feel there is a good opportunity to tap that market. We can easily meet the demands of the US garment brands. However, we will only enter the US export market once the company's ongoing expansion is over," Nataraj added.

The company is expanding its existing manufacturing facilities at its Arasur plant. "The company will expand its present yarn manufacturing capacity at Arasur to 54,000 tonnes per annum from the existing 27,000 tonnes PA by doubling the existing spindle numbers which will be 212,064 after the expansion. We will also add a fabric manufacturing facility at SIPCOT, Perundrai in Tamil Nadu. We have also increased our windmill power generating capacity to 39.07 Mw from the previous19.27 Mw capacity."

"Post-expansion our fabric manufacturing capacity will be 17,200 tonnes PA from the present 8,200 tonnes PA, apparel manufacturing capacity will be 37 million pieces PA from the existing 12 million pieces PA. At present we export all our apparel," Nataraj said, hinting that the company plans to launch its apparels in the Indian markets.

Nataraj added that the company's expansion project will be completed by December this year.

The company is aiming to raise Rs 133 crore to Rs 157 crore from its upcoming IPO of 5,912,100 equity shares of Rs 10 each through a 100 per cent book-building process.

The price band has been fixed at Rs 225 to Rs 265 per equity share of Rs 10 each and the issue closes August 7. The issue would constitute 15.69 per cent of the fully diluted post issue paid-up capital of the company.