Kolkata apparel units increase capacities, ad spends

Encouraged by improving consumer sentiment, Kolkata’s apparel manufacturers are expanding manufacturing capacities and investing in retail expansion. Even unorganised players are introducing apparel brands in order to take on organised players, building on “value” retailing concepts.

Menswear manufacturer Turtle Ltd will be investing Rs 5 crore in advertising and marketing in the next one year, in an attempt to increase the visibility of its brands.

Amit Ladsaria, director of Turtle, said, “We are investing Rs 5 crore in advertising and marketing. We are also investing close to Rs 90 lakh in expanding capacities of our trousers and shirts lines.”

The company currently has a capacity of 1.5 million shirts per annum, which the it intends to increase to 2 million pieces in the next six months. Turtle also invested Rs 40 lakh recently in setting up a new trousers plant in West Bengal.

“We are also expanding our retail presence. We have 36 stores right now and we are targeting a total of 50 stores by March 2010,” said Ladsaria.

Turtle is targeting a turnover of Rs 75 crore in 2009-10, up from Rs 61 crore in the last financial year.

Dhananjay Apparels, a Rs 20 crore children’s apparels company, is in expansion mode and plans to invest Rs 6 crore in a retail foray. Ansul Agarwal, managing director of Dhananjay Apparels, said, “We have been in the apparels business for the last 40 years. Dhananjay Apparels as a company is four years old and our current turnover is Rs 20 crore.”

“We have got licences for characters like ‘Popeye’ and ‘Betty Boop’, and we are in talks with Cartoon Network for more licences. The new garments will sport these new characters, priced economically. Our current range is priced between Rs 79 and Rs 399,” Agarwal added.

Dhananjay Apparels currently has three manufacturing plants in West Bengal and has a capacity of 15,000 pieces per day.

Even unorganised garment manufacturers like Tina Industries, are investing in introducing apparel brands in order to compete with organised players.

Karuna Kedia, who looks after the designing for Tina Industries, said, “We have set a target of selling 2 lakh garments for summer 2010. One reason why we intend to get into organised garment retailing is because we intend to get into exports as well,” Kedia explained.