Local lure

RETAIL: After tapping the export market, Hyderabad's Cherma's looks at local expansion.

"JC Penney, Wal-Mart, Kohl's, Euro Fashions, Disney...you name it, and they are our clients," says a proud Captain KF Pestonji in Hyderabad.

No, he is not designing software for these companies, but using software (computer-aided design or CAD) to design garments for them, which he then manufactures and exports.

A commercial pilot by training, Pestonji is the president of the 26-year old Cherma's group (named after his two daughters Cherezaad and Maneeza) which began as a retailer of garments in the twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad.

Today, his factory on the outskirts of Hyderabad "" with a built up area of 1,80,000 sq ft and the capacity to produce five million garments a year "" supplies products to clients in the US and UK.

Though this industry is labour-intensive, especially in India with its legacy of small-scale sector policies, his factory has kept pace with technological advancements, with computerised pocket-welting machines, embroidery machines and conveyor fusing machines imported from Japan, China, Germany and Italy.

Explaining how quality remains of ultimate importance to the company, Pestonji says that its garments pass through 11 checkpoints.

"At the final level, the quality auditor randomly checks seven pieces from each lot, and if there is a flaw in even one piece, the entire lot is sent back," he elaborates.

Cherma's is now planning to catch up in the domestic market where it seems to have been left behind. "We are expanding to Mysore, Nagpur, Nashik, Bangalore and Pune in the next 12 months," Pestonji says. The $40-million group had recently opened a store in Aurangabad as well.