Hirawats group to set up apparel unit at Vizag

Rs 10-crore unit to churn out Rs 7-8 cr worth of garments

Vizag-based Hirawats Group of Industries, which is into the textile and herbal medicines business, is setting up a readymade garment manufacturing unit at the Vizag Apparel Park at an investment of between Rs 8 and Rs 10 crore.

The group is also planning to expand its span of sales operations to the rest of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.

Speaking to Business Standard, Ashok Kumar, director of Hirawats Group of Industries, said: "We are planning to manufacture Rs 7-8 crore worth of readymade garments under the 'Hirawats' brand at the proposed manufacturing unit. To market these products, we are planning to open textile outlets across Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. We will enter the Maharashtra market at a later stage."

At present, Hirawats has three showrooms in Vizag, and weekly-one-day outlets at Vijayawada, Kakinada, Rajahmundry and Guntur. The company is all set to open a full-fledged textile showroom at Ameerpet in Hyderabad within three months. Hirawats specialises in school uniforms.

"The readymade garments unit at the Apparel Park will start production from February 2005. Owing to this our turnover is expected to touch Rs 30 crore next fiscal from the present Rs 20 crore," Kumar said.

"We have already received orders from Nepal, UAE and some South-East countries. Close to 35-40 per cent of our production from the proposed unit will be exported while the remaining would be sold in the domestic market. Keeping this in mind, we are planning to enter the Karnataka and Tamil Nadu markets next fiscal," he added.

"Initially, we are going to set up 200 machines at our Apparel Park unit. Over the next three to four years, we plan to increase the number of machines to 1,000. Our turnover at that point is expected to touch Rs 90 crore," Kumar said.

Hirawats group has been manufacturing herbal-based ayurvedic medicinal skin cream under the brand name 'Sri Tulasi' for the last 15 years.

In the beginning, Hirawats' herbal products division achieved a turnover of Rs 48 lakh. Due to lack of concentration on the herbal medicine market, the turnover came down to Rs 12 lakh last fiscal.

"We have been concentrating more on our textile business since the last four-five years. Due to this, turnover from our herbal business dropped sharply. In a bid to resurrect our herbal business, we are appointing a scientist for R&D purposes. We are also planning to roll out medicinal creams and powders based on lotus and gumcaria extraction. With plans to launch new products, we expect a significant growth in turnover from our herbal products' business too," Kumar said.