Retailers approach Kanpur hosiery firms for orders

Leading retailers like Reliance and Pantaloons have lent a ray of hope to more than 50 small and medium hosiery manufacturers spread in the city. The company representatives have approached the MSME development institute in kanpur for providing orders to meet their requirements.

MSME development institute director, HP Jaiswal told Business Standard that the institute will soon organise a buyers-sellers meet to provide an easy negotiating platform to the retailers and entrepreneurs. “The opportunity is ripe for the small and medium enterprises (SME) workers to expand their market even as the current slowdown is eating away into profits of most of their counterparts,” he said.

The city is fast emerging as a favourite hosiery destination for retailers and wholesalers from all over the country. It is also home to renowned brands like Jet Eco, Canary London, Caplan, Damos etc, apart from numerous smaller units.

Owners of woolen garment factories including Priknit, Koutons and Knitware Club are defying the slowdown sentiments by raking in modest profits.

The city has more than 1,000 small, medium and large hosiery manufacturing houses, which generate a business of more than Rs 500 crore annually.

“The knitwear section is around Rs 7,000 to Rs 10,000 crore . These days markets trend is towards retail only. So, every industry which is going into retail is booming,” said Himanshu Jain, managing director of leading brand — Canary London. Kanpur accounts for nearly 10 per cent of the country’s woolen and cotton hosiery industry and is still growing. The increasing profit in this sector is luring more and more companies to make a debut.

“The hosiery goods of the city are in great demand not only across nation, but also worldwide. This industry is a major foreign exchange earner for India and includes America and Russia among its clientele,” said Jain.

According to trade experts, the industry’s growing popularity in the domestic market is due to the increasing demand for branded costumes. The foreign export market is however still largely untapped.

“Today, if we talk of organised apparel markets, which is to the tune of Rs 22, 000 crore and which is growing at the rate of three per cent per annum and will continue for the next five to seven years, that means there are lot of opportunities available in India itself especially Punjab,” said CMD, Jet Eco, Balram Narula.

The local manufacturers are now upgrading their yarns to compete with the readymade garments of China and other countries, which are giving a tough competition to the Indian goods in the domestic market. These yarns are polyester-based and are attractive in colours.

The hosieries are a worried lot in view of the easy flow of the Chinese goods. However, they maintain that this is just a beginning and they can compete with these countries provided the Central and the state governments support them.

Jain points out that the Union Government has earmarked Rs 25,000 crore for the upgrade of the textile industry.

But they cannot avail of this benefit because of the strict rules for procuring NOC from the Pollution Control Board. They have to get the NOC if the investment is more than Rs 25 lakh whereas the small scale industries limit is Rs 5 crore.