Pratibha Syntex mulls capacity expansion

To diversify into coarse yarn, terry towel segments

Indore-based Pratibha Syntex (PSL) has announced an ambitious expansion plan for its art textile plant in the special economic zone (SEZ) at Pithampur.

The company intends to increase its marketshare overseas for existing and new products. It plans to achieve this by increasing the capacity, de-bottlenecking and broadbasing its product portfolio, S K Chaudhary, chairman and managing director of Pratibha Syntex, said.

The proposed expansion of Pratibha's existing facilities include knitting and dyeing, starting a new open-ended spinning unit to produce coarser yarns, diversifying into terry towels to leverage the supply demand mismatch and putting up a gas-based captive power project to cater to in-house power requirement.

A gas-based captive power plant of 6 Mw capacity is being set up to cater to the company's existing and future requirements. The plant is being installed by Wartsila India. The fuel, regassified liquified natural gas, will be sourced from GAIL which would contribute substantial savings to overall utility costs, Chaudhary said.

The company, which made a decisive move into the textile business in 1996, has a presence in the entire value chain from fiber to apparel, with world class production facilities in Indore. PSL has also been a pioneer in promoting organic cotton farming with farmers as well as garment manufacturers.

PSL had reported revenues of Rs 312 crore in 2004-05. The revenues are estimated to increase to Rs 820 crore by financial year 2008-09, once the expanded capacities are fully operational.

The company was incorporated in October 1982 in the name of Pratibha Processors Ltd. It originally had grey cloth dyeing and printing facilities at Surat and forayed into cotton-based business with spinning operations (13,000 spindles for combed and carded yarn) in 1996 from its textile unit at Pithampur.

Following the emergence of the second generation in the promoter family and expansion of business, there was an amicable family separation in terms of which the Surat facilities were demerged into a separate company and transferred to other faction of the family, while Pratibha Syntex retained the cotton-based business.