Ludhiana's hosiery season picking up

World-renowned Ludhiana hosiery industry is all geared up to begin production for the forthcoming winter season as buyers from other states have started visiting manufacturers to place orders.

The city is home to roughly 15,000 small- and medium-scale producers, who, as per estimates, do an annual business of Rs 5,000 crore in the domestic market. There is a large section of manufacturers who obtain orders directly from clients.

These days, a spurt in activity can be witnessed in most hotels of the city where hosiery manufacturers exhibit their samples every year. Besides quality and buyers' requirements, price plays a key factor in procuring orders.

Speaking to Business Standard, Charanjiv Singh, a hosiery factory owner, said competition was tough as most people exhibited their products. "We have to take into account factors like quality, design, colour, and price to get orders."

The producers will continue the displays for the fall winter 2006-07 collection for a few more weeks.

"We have invited buyers from other places and within a few days, we are hopeful of getting orders for the coming season, following which production would start and continue till around October," said Sunil Kapoor, owner of Kapoor Fashions.

Talking about design, Ludhiana Knitwear Club President Vinod Kumar Thapar said design was a critical factor, as "we have to produce in keeping with fashion trends.

"It is international fashion on which we rely for this. We visit the Internet and foreign trips also help. It normally takes two years for a trend to come to India from Europe and we keep this in mind," Thapar said.

After the recently concluded exhibition in Delhi, where various manufacturers procured orders from Uttar Pradesh and Orissa, the industry got activated.

"Now, manufacturers will get orders from states like Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh," a hosiery factory owner said.