Welspun lines up Rs 2,500-cr expansion plan

Home-grown textile major Welspun India plans to invest Rs 2,500 crore to expand manufacturing capacities over the next 12 months.
"We have decided to invest Rs 2,500 crore in our textile business over the next 12 months period. We have set up the country's largest spinning facility at Anjar with an investment of around Rs 800 crore," B K Goenka, Chairman of textiles-to-steel Welspun Group, told reporters here today.
The new facility will be instrumental in doubling Welspun's spinning capacity to over 3,00,000 spindles, thereby fulfilling nearly 70 per cent of the fine and super fine yarn requirements of the company, he said.

This will also help the company strengthen its core competencies of quality and innovations, he said. The company will invest into modernisation and expansion of its towel manufacturing capacity at Vapi unit in Gujarat.
The Rs 2,500-crore expansion will be funded through internal accruals and debt. While Rs 700 crore would be contributed from the company's side, the remaining will be raised through borrowings, Goenka added.
Currently, export contributes almost 97 per cent of Welspun's total textile revenue of over Rs 6,000 crore. Its export markets are US, Europe, Japan and Australia, among others.

Earlier, inaugurating the 1,70,000 spindles capacity facility at Anjar, Gujarat Chief Minister Anandi Patel said the unit will in a big way help in providing job opportunities.

The state government will consider the industry's demand to set up mega textile parks to boost growth of the key sector, she added.
Union Minister of State for Textiles Santosh Kumar Gangwar said the sector has huge growth potential in India.
He suggested linking the textile sector to the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGA).
"My Ministry has recommended to the Prime Minister to introduce MNREGA scheme for textile industry, which is the second largest employment generator," Gangwar said.
The Welspun project reflects the ethos of the state government's recent 'farm-factory-fabric-fashion-foreign' textile policy, said Gujarat Finance Minister Saurabh Patel, who was also present on the occasion.