Amritsar firm to invest Rs 5 cr in new fabric unit

Amritsar-based Gopi Krishna Processing Private Ltd is coming up with a fabric-processing house, having the capacity to produce 600,000 metres a month, with an initial investment of about Rs 5 crore. The new unit is likely to be operational by December.

The machinery for the new unit will be partly indigenous and partly imported. The company has plans for a 2 Mw captive power plant by January next year. Currently, the company has five units, three of them in processing and two of them in embroidery.

The company processes suits, shirts, and dress materials. The processing units concentrate on dyeing, bleaching, and sizing. But now, their activities cover areas like embroidery for value addition.

In 2004-05, the turnover of the company was Rs 40 crore, and in this financial year, it expects Rs 50 crore.

Talking to Business Standard, Managing Director Vineet Aggarwal said, "The new unit will be spread over 3 acres, and work has started. It will be a state-of-the-art plant, and we are importing two embroidery machines from Switzerland for the new unit and processing machines from Surat. "Once the new unit is operational, we are expecting a two-fold increase in turnover," he added.

"We are infusing Rs 1.5 crore to enhance the production capacity of the existing units, whose current capacity is 700,000-800,000 metres a month. After the infusion, there will be a 25 per cent increase in capacity," Aggarwal said.

"With 125 dealers in the northern region, the company has a strong presence in Punjab, Haryana, and Himachal Pradesh," he said, adding, "the firm is planning to double its dealer network."

Citing the main reasons behind the downfall of processing houses in Amritsar (in 1990, there were more than 100 but now only 13), Aggarwal said the processing houses did not do enough technological upgrade, and there had been mismanagement and overproduction. Besides, the apathy of the state and central governments is also responsible.