In the early 1990s, Lalbhai withdrew all of the company’s products, focussing purely on denim.
Known as the denim king or cotton man, Sanjay Lalbhai has played a pivotal role in making Arvind Limited (formerly The Arvind Mills Ltd.) a force to reckon with in the textiles sector. Now the chairman and managing director of one of the largest manufacturers of denim in the world, Lalbhai has been instrumental in placing Ahmedabad — the Manchester of the East — on the global map.
Lalbhai, who holds a bachelors degree in science from Gujarat University and a masters degree in management from the Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies, Mumbai, hails from an entrepreneurial family of Lalbhai. He has displayed vision, innovation and courage. At a time when fierce competition was taking a toll of Arvind Mills Ltd. in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Lalbhai withdrew from the market all 250 products that the company was manufacturing — from handkerchiefs to saris — and focussed exclusively on denim by modernising the factories. Having become one of the largest denim makers in the world, Arvind Mills Ltd. is now Arvind Limited, a move that was meant to allow the company to straddle other sectors and verticals.
In all the years of its existence, Arvind Mills, founded by Shri Kasturbhai Lalbhai, has made rich contributions to not only the industrial but also the social fabric of Ahmedabad and Gujarat and Sanjay Lalbhai, the third-generation textile baron, has been religiously following this legacy.
Sanjay has made Arvind Mills, the flagship company of the Lalbhai Group, one of India’s largest composite manufacturers of textiles. Headquartered in Ahmedabad, the textile capital of India, it manufactures a range of premium cotton shirting, world-class denim, knits, bottom weights (Khakis) fabrics.
Lalbhai also took prompt steps to exploit opportunities when he realised that following the abolition of the quota system in 2005, Asia would emerge as the hub of the global textile industry, as it is the key textile outsourcing base. Lalbhai took immediate steps to improve yields and competitiveness.
Under his stewardship, Arvind Limited has been able to spread its wings in international markets and become a global brand. The company has acquired the international licences of Lee, Wrangler, Arrow and Tommy Hilfiger. Its domestic brands such as Flying Machine, Newport, Excalibur and Ruf & Tuf are flying high in the denim market.
Today, with Sanjay Lalbhai at the helm, the company has moved on from being just a denim major. Arvind Limited has forayed into sectors like real estate, retail and food products.
