Arvind invests Rs 350 cr in Gujarat garment hub

Textile-to-retail conglomerate Arvind has invested Rs 350 crore in developing a manufacturing hub in Gujarat with three garment facilities that can push up its revenues by Rs 1,000 crore.

Two of the facilities were inaugurated on Tuesday by Gujarat chief minister Vijay Rupani and the third one is expected to commence operations over the next few weeks. They will add a capacity of 3 million garments a month to the company's current operations.

These large-scale facilities will employ 12,000 people as operations reach optimal capacity and many more ancillary jobs are expected to be created around them.

"These manufacturing facilities, set up with an investment of Rs 350 crore, will further strengthen Arvind's position in the global textiles and garmenting market as an integrated fibre-to-fashion provider and solutions provider to global retailers and brands," its chairman and managing director Sanjay Lalbhai said.

Arvind also plans to invest Rs 500 crore per annum for the next 4-5 years with an aim to double revenue from its textile business to Rs 12,000 crore, the company said.

Currently, only 10 per cent of the fabrics produced by the company are converted into garments and it aims to convert nearly 50 per cent over the next 5 years.

"Bavla (Gujarat) facilities are a step in this direction. These will also contribute to the company's foray into performance and functional wear (active wear) and synthetics. They are one of the several we are planning to create over the next few years," Lalbhai said.

He further said that Arvind will develop large garment clusters in Jharkhand and Andhra Pradesh besides Gujarat.

"Each of these clusters will employ over 10,000 workers. Our current manpower of over 45,000 is expected to more than double as these clusters become operational and reach optimal scale," Lalbhai added.

Recently, Arvind received the approval from National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) for its scheme of demerger of its branded apparel and engineering businesses into separate entities.