GHCL acquires UK's Rosebys for Rs 180 cr

GHCL today announced that it signed an agreement to acquire UK's largest home textiles retailer, Rosebys, for $40 million (nearly Rs 180 crore).

Rosebys has a presence in bedding, curtains and kids garments with over 300 retail outlets across the UK and an annual turnover of close to $250 million. It has over 2,000 employees.

Sanjay Dalmia, chairman, GHCL said, "The acquisition provides us an opportunity to leverage Rosebys's established platform across the EU markets. It will be an ideal combination of low cost strong manufacturing base with a large established marketing platform to put us on the fast track growth".

The company will fund the acquisition through resources raised from domestic and foreign institutions in the recent past. The acquisition is likely to be completed in four months, after which GHCL would have a complete control over Rosebys's operations.

Post acquisition, GHCL would become world's only integrated home textiles company with presence across spinning, weaving, product design and development, sourcing and distribution to retail stores at a global level.

In the textiles space, GHCL had acquired Dan River Inc, which is a leading player in the US textile markets with a turnover of $250 million in home textiles.

It has a vast sales and distribution network within the US catering to largest retailers and preferred supplier to large retailers such as JC Penny and Linen & Things, Wal-mart, Bed, Bath & Beyond. With these acquisitions, GHCL is set to enter into the $40 billion US and UK markets, which account for the 60 per cent of the global home textiles trade.

GHCL is also expanding its capacity in spinning from 85,000 spindles to 140,000 spindles over 18 months. The company is in the process of completing its home textile manufacturing facility at Vapi at a cost of Rs.230 crore. The unit at 90 per cent capacity is likely to generate $100 million in revenues.

In the chemical's space, GHCL's subsidiary had earlier acquired a controlling stake in SC Bega Upsom in Romania. With these acquisitions, GHCL's global capacity would be 18,00,000 MTPA from the current 600,000 MTPA.