New Raymond plant for suits, trousers opened

Gap in fabrics-to-garments chain closed

Silver Spark Apparel Ltd, a Raymond group company, has opened its manufacturing facility at Doddaballapur, near Bangalore. From providing fabrics to renowned customers across the world, Raymonds, along with Silver Spark, will now focus on manufacturing garments for them.

The commissioning of the Silver Spark Apparel plant will mark Raymond Group's foray into the global apparel outsourcing market, which is expected to boom after the dismantling of the Multi Fibre Agreement. This particular unit in Bangalore is dedicated to manufacturing suits and formal trousers.

The division is expected to contribute nearly Rs 200 crore to Raymond's topline in the current year. This will come purely by providing value addition to Raymond's existing customers who source fabrics from it. Silver Spark will also scout for new customers besides existing ones from Raymonds.

Set up at a cost of Rs 42.5 crore, nearly 80 per cent of the trousers and suits manufactured in this facility will be exported. Its headcount of 1,000 employees is slated to double next year.

This state-of-the-art manufacturing facility has an annual capacity of five lakh suits and 13 lakh trousers. With this facility, the Raymonds Group is hoping to make a dent in the garment manufacturing segment, which was hitherto reserved for the small-scale sector. The acquisition of Colour Plus brand will also play a crucial role in this endeavor.

Speaking at the opening of the unit, Gautam Hari Singhania, chairman and managing director, Raymond Ltd, said, "Many of our customers sourced fabric from us and shipped them to a country like Bangladesh for manufacturing. With the end of the quota regime and the reservation of manufacturing of garments for SSIs being abolished, we plan to be a one-stop solution to our customers. Typically, this means a huge saving in transportation and manufacturing costs for our customers."

Interestingly, both the trousers line and the suits line in the newly inaugurated facility have a lot of takers.

"Currently, our capacity is nearly 1,000 suits and 3,000 trousers per day. This can go up to 1,500 suits and 4,000 trousers during peak utilisation. Our trouser line is already sold out till March 2005 while 50 per cent of our suits line has already been sold out to a Japanese customer," Singhania added.

According to him, "Our investment in setting up this new garment unit is in line with our vision to become a global player in our areas of core competence. The setting-up of this unit is the first step towards bridging the value chain between manufacturing of fabrics and exporting garments."

With a total built-up area of 2 lakh sq.ft, the new facility houses specially imported state-of-the-art manufacturing equipment.

The specialty of the plant is the superior construction of the jacket which will be in line with Italian and Japanese quality levels. The unit is fully compliant with international quality norms.