The Hindu Business Line : Indian Textile Clusters, Carrera Holdings sign pact for textile consortium

Mr Vivek Jacob, Chairman & CEO, Carrera Holdings Inc., Italy (right), and Mr Gianluca Tecchella, President, at a press conference in Mumbai on Wednesday. — Shashi Ashiwal

Mumbai , July 20

THE Indian Textile Clusters and Italian company Carrera Holdings have signed a formal agreement to form a textile cluster consortium.

Members of the consortium include six hi-tech textile parks — Cauvery Hi-Tech Weaving Park, Palladam Hi-Tech Weaving Park, Erode Hi-Tech Weaving Park, Vaigai Hi-tech Weaving Park, The Karur Hi-tech Weaving Park and Hyderabad Hi-Tech Textile Park — and Banyan Tree Holding, a company of Carrera Holdings Group.

According to Mr Vivek Jacob, Chairman, Carrera Holdings, the company would invest $2.5 million in the consortium and try and absorb as much of its expenses as possible.

The consortium intends to make it easier for Carrera to share technology, marketing assistance and financial assistance with various textile parks and will operate as clusters.

Clusters have been in existence in Italy for long and have contributed significantly to the Italian economy.

Carrera is sharing expertise drawn from the Italian cluster system to help the members of the consortium.

According to Mr M. Senthil Kumar, Managing Director, BKS Textiles Pvt Ltd, said the association with Carrera would help small entrepreneurs with the apparel parks to find a market. The consortium, which will primarily focus on marketing, training of workforce and finance, will be in Mumbai, with offices in textile parks, Europe and the US.

Its other aims include promoting a trading company, a quality certification company, a training consortia and commodity exchange for yarns and fibres.

The trading company will be responsible for creating a high profile image for the products/services created by the members of the textile clusters and will generate sales for members of each textile park.

The training consortia will act as a skill centre, anticipating industry needs and creating training curriculum for the firms and develop benchmarking practices.

While Mr Jacob admitted that the company outsourced $12 million of its requirements from India, he said some of the suppliers would use technology that was specified by Carrera and intended to make the supplier network stronger.

The consortium will attempt to set in place a weaving system, quality control systems, transparency in procurement of yarn and assistance in marketing finished products.

Carrera also plans to set up a showroom, through MIDC, in Mumbai where the products will be showcased.

Carrera has big plans in India having just announced a 50:50 joint venture with Picanol, a textile machinery major from Belgium.

Under the joint venture, the company will manufacture shuttle-less looms in Maharashtra. It also has plans to set up about 50 outlets in the country to sell its products.

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