KSL knits Rs 600 cr expansion

Company eyes exports worth Rs 300 crore by 2007-08

KSL & Industries Ltd has drawn up a Rs 600 crore expansion plan for the next two years. The flagship company of Saurabh Kumar Tayal Enterprise is targeting exports worth Rs 300 crore by 2007-08.

"Value added knitted fabrics are in great demand, and yield higher realisations the world over as major buyers such as Zenya, Aarmani and Versace prefer these for their premium brands.

"To meet this demand, we will concentrate on manufacture of high value added knitted fabrics and garments made of cotton, with counts of 60s and 80s," Saurabh Kumar Tayal, chairman, KSL & Industries, said.

KSL has undertaken various expansion projects to enhance capacity. It currently has a spinning capacity of 10,000 tonne per annum (tpa) with 65,000 spindles, 19,000 tpa of knitting with 200 machines, and 1000 tpa of processing.

The company is aiming at installing an additional 150,000 spindles for manufacturing cotton yarn, matching knitting and fabric processing capacity, and garments manufacturing set-up.

"To manufacture high value cloth, the production unit should essentially comprise new spindles. KSL, with its superior quality spindles from leading international manufacturers, is ideally positioned to capitalise on this opportunity," Tayal said.

"Total exports of KSL & Industries stood at Rs 30 crore in 2004-05. We expect it to touch Rs 50 crore during the current financial year. After the expansion, which we expect to be over by 2007, our target will be exports worth Rs. 300 crore," he added.

KSL, which was set up in 1975 as a small knitting unit, has now gown to an integrated textile company involved in spinning of yarn, knitting of fabrics, processing of knitted fabrics, and making finished garments.

The company achieved net sales of 153.62 crore in 2004-05, which was up by 76 per cent over the previous year. The company's net profit increased by 12.86 times to Rs 10.67 crore in the financial year.

The company has plants at Silvassa, Bhilad, Dombivali and Nagpur. The company has installed captive power generation units at all its manufacturing units to reduce power cost and to ensure supply of consistent power.