• Investment World
• eWorld
• Brand Line
• Mentor
• Life
• Brand Quest
• The New Manager

Stocks

• Quotes
• SE Diary
• Scoreboard
• Open-End Mutual Fund

Cross Currency

• Rates
  
  

Shipping

• Ports
  
  

Archives

• Yesterday
• Datewise
• Resources
• In Focus
• In Depth

Group Sites

• The Hindu
• The Hindu ePaper
• Business Line
• Business Line ePaper
• Sportstar
• Frontline
• The Hindu eBooks
• The Hindu Images

Anil Sasi

New Delhi, Dec. 28 GHCL, the flagship company of the Dalmia Group, has set up a subsidiary for exclusively handling procurement for the group’s textile retail business in India and overseas.

The group’s global sourcing strategy for its textile business comes on the back of four major acquisitions by the company in the international home textiles space, including three firms in the US and a retail chain in the UK, and a strengthening domestic retail presence.

“We have registered a new subsidiary GHCL Global Sourcing that will be responsible for sourcing from all over the world for our retail ventures, which we will be scaling up very soon both globally and in India,” GHCL Chairman, Mr Sanjay Dalmia, said.

The company’s global home textiles revenues of over $600 million to a great extent has been insulated from the appreciation of the rupee against the dollar in light of the fact that a bulk of the sourcing is being done from other global sourcing destinations such as Cambodia, China, Pakistan, Turkey and Mexico.

As a macro strategy, GHCL may also look at demerging its soda ash and textile business as separate entities. The company is also on the look out for more acquisitions abroad. “We are on the look out for suitable opportunities in both Europe and the US,” Mr Dalmia told Business Line.

The company is bullish on improving its margins for the home textiles business with the launch of its exclusive range of home textiles retail chain stores in the country. For the quarter ended September 2007, GHCL’s home textiles business showed growth of over 100 per cent, accounting for 41 per cent of the total revenue of the company.

In the US, GHCL acquired Dan River in January 2006, HW Baker in December 2006 and Best Manufacturing Group in February 2007. In the UK, it acquired a retail chain called Rosebys in July 2006, with 300 stores across the country.

According to Mr Dalmia, GHCL is in the process of expanding the operations for all the three sectors which includes retail chains, hotel and restaurant, and the hospital segment. Dan River is a strong player in the institutional segment of hospitals and hospitality, including hotels and restaurants.

More Stories on : Announcements | Textiles

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
GHCL sets up global sourcing arm for textiles

Copyright © 2007, 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