The Hindu Business Line : NTC mills to be modernised

THE National Textiles Corporation (South Maharashtra), which is running the Finlay's pure cotton mills, is confident of mobilising Rs 1,100 crore needed for clearing debts and modernising its nine mills, according to its Chief General Manager (marketing), Mr J.K. Baweja.

He said here on Thursday that one of the nine subsidiaries of the NTC, the NTC (SM), received the approval of the BIFR for its Rs 350 crore plan for modernising its mills. Eight other mills which were unviable had been closed and their employees were given voluntary retirement. The outstanding debts were to the tune of Rs 750 crore, he said.

"The modernisation of the nine mills is through self-funding process. We can generate the money by selling the lands and machinery of the eight closed mills, since land is quite expensive in Mumbai. We expect the turnover of the mills to reach Rs 500 crore after the modernisation is completed," Mr Baweja said at a press conference held here on the occasion of opening a new showroom.

Among the nine subsidiaries of the NTC, the SM, North Maharashtra, AP-Kerala-Karnataka and Tamil Nadu-Pondicherry were doing well, he said.

The cotton textile sector had witnessed a sea change in recent times. In tune with the changing market trends and customers' demands, Finlay's had diversified its products and launched readymades in a big way apart from bedsheets and sarees, Mr Baweja said.

Finlay's, established in 1907 by James Finlay, is famous for its super fine quality dhotis and kurtas and it has introduced the Organdie variety of sarees (the sarees are treated with sulphuric acid in the last stage of the production to give a permanent crisp finish) and no other mill has this facility.

The late Finlay was keen to produce very fine quality cotton and made his mills use the 100 and 120 count Egyptian superfine yarn and the mills were still continuing with the quality yarn, he explained.

"We are producing a shirt, just weighing 95 grams, and this probably is the lightest shirt in the world. It is made with 120 and 150 count yarns," he said. The Finlay's whites were also famous and nearly 50 self-design varieties — the largest by any mills — were available.

The Finlay's opened its showroom in the city on Wednesday, the second in the State after Hyderabad, and the seventh in the country.

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