RK Overseas plans Rs 6 crore venture

Amritsar-based R K Overseas is planning to set up an integrated unit in the city having spinning, weaving, and dyeing facilities, with a project cost of Rs 5-6 crore. The firm manufactures woollen and silk shawls, stoles, scarves, and handkerchiefs.

The machinery for the unit will be imported from Switzerland and Germany. The unit is likely to be operational in March next year.

Talking to Business Standard, Managing Director Sunil Khanna said, "We are waiting for the SEZ to come up in Amritsar. Although it has been announced by the state government, nothing concrete has been done. If it does not come up in a month, we will put up an integrated unit with spinning, weaving, and dyeing facilities in Amritsar, with a project cost of Rs 5-6 crore."

The spinning unit will have 5,000 spindles, having the capacity to produce 4,000 kg of yarn a day. And, the capacity of the weaving unit would be around 2,500 pieces per day, he added.

He said, "We are expecting a three-fold increase in turnover with the operationalising of the unit." This year, the company is expecting a turnover of around Rs 15 crore.

The company now has two weaving units, one each in Amritsar and Mumbai, manufacturing the products mentioned above. Besides this, it also has a handicrafts unit in Delhi. The company is a 100 per cent export-oriented one, exporting to France and other European countries, the US, Japan, Australia, Brazil, etc.

Khanna said exporters faced stiff competition from China because the Chinese were "good at copying" and they focused on large-scale production only. On the contrary, creativity is much more in India, and here the focus is on small-scale production, according to him. But communication was important in export, and there India had an edge over the Chinese because of proficiency in English, he added.

But, the advantages in China are that unlike India, they have a single-window clearance system, flexible labour laws, and the government attitude towards industry is positive, according to him.