Indian textile mills heading to Ethiopia to take on Bangladesh, Cambodia

The African nation offers much cheaper labour and power, apart from easier access to key markets, plug-and-play infra for new plants, and friendly tax laws

KPR Mills, one of the major factories in the textile town of Tirupur, Tamil Nadu, said today that it has started a unit in Ethiopia to take advantage of lower labour cost, duty savings and shorter shipment time to the US and European markets.

KPR joins a clutch of other prominent textile players, such as Raymond, Arvind, Best Corporation and JJ Mills, that have set up shop in the East African nation largely because their Made-in-India products are finding it difficult to take on the competition from Bangladesh, Cambodia and other nations.

These companies are hoping their Africa investments would bring about