• Investment World
• eWorld
• Catalyst
• Mentor
• Life
• Canvas
• Praxis
• Urban Pulse
• Brand Quest

Anna Peter

Mumbai , Nov. 18

SEVERAL industries are anxious to see a revival of fortunes in the domestic textiles trade. The express industry is a surprise beneficiary in the rising trade in readymade apparel and the fashion segment.

Growth in the express industry is being driven by the import of low-priced, but high-volume products such as leather products and accessories including zippers, buttons and labels, and the subsequent export of finished products such as readymade garments and designerwear.

According to Mr Ramesh Natarajan, Head, Marketing, DHL Worldwide Express, the textile sector represents 30 per cent - 35 per cent of its business. Much of it comes from fashion accessories, which have to be imported from China and South-East Asia.

For Safexpress, a Rs 205-crore domestic supply chain and logistics company, the textile industry accounts for about 7 per cent - 10 per cent of its business. This is one of the four sectors that will power its growth this fiscal. So far, most of this business has been concentrated in Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.

Mr Natarajan said most Indian exporters were unclear about the trade scenario post-2005, and DHL was making efforts to share its foreign operations experience with exporters.

In December 2003 - January 2004, it will host a series of seminars, with the Confederation of Indian Apparel Exporters; and, has sponsored a KSA Technopak study on the implications of the post-quota scenario for exporters. Mr Natarajan said the exercise was geared towards bringing exporters and fashion designers on to a common platform. Indian designers were keen to expand their sales volume, and exporters could provide support and expertise.

Two of its services are aimed at the fashion sector — Import Express (covering pick-up, transportation, customs clearance and delivery) and China First.

Fedex, on the other hand, has created software and services specifically for the domestic textiles industry. Mr Birendra Ahluwalia, Marketing Manager, West Asia, Indian Subcontinent and Sub Sahara Africa, Fedex, told Business Line that textileexporters had two key worries — durable packaging and customs documentation. In response to the packaging concerns, it came up with `Sleeve', a 6 ft long package, tested and developed in Memphis, specifically for the Indian market, where materials are rolled and transported. This does away with the need for the exporter to iron his product and repackage it at the end point. In addition, it has developed Fedex Boxes to cart T-shirts upright, in which it has seen significant growth.

Critical to the Indian market in terms of express services was reliability, value for money and personalised attention. He said the textile segment had been ignored for a very long time and had only begun being explored in the last five years. Fedex places the textile segment on par with money-spinning segments such as pharma, electronics, leather and handicrafts.

Fedex had 60 dedicated business development executives in India to help exporters analyse their supply chains, problems involved and to provide solutions. Mr Ahluwalia added that a comprehensive set of services for the textile segment were being rolled out in India, Turkey and Sri Lanka — important textile centres.

According to DHL's India Trade Outlook, the size of the domestic readymade apparel market is worth approximately Rs 43,100 crore, of which 46 per cent is accounted for by menswear; 37 per cent by womenswear and 17 per cent childrenswear. Readymades is one of the top four categories of exports from India in 2002-03.

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication

Stories in this Section
Plea to ensure jobs for TN farmers

Copyright © 2003, The Hindu Business Line. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu Business Line