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Grasim Industries plans to invest Rs 150 crore on promotion of its recently-launched viscose staple fibre (VSF) brand Liva next fiscal.
India, being the largest producer of cotton, the usage and awareness on VSF is limited in the domestic market.
Speaking to BusinessLine , KK Maheshwari, Managing Director, Grasim Industries, said the usage of VSF is already catching up among domestic processors with the winter collection made of VSF expected to go up from 20 lakh garments this year to about 50 lakh garments next winter season.
“The Liva Accredited Partner Forum has registered about 335 members who include spinners, weavers and garment makers. We are also getting designers to participate in the forum and bring out fresh designs using the eco-friendly fabric,” he said.
The Aditya Birla group company has enhanced its VSF production capacity in March from 120,000 tonnes per annum to 500,000 tpa with the completion of the last phase of its greenfield project at Vilayat in Gujarat. The company sells about 300,000 tonnes of VSF in the domestic market and the rest is exported.
Annual demand growth
Globally, the annual demand growth for VSF is about four per cent. The biggest challenge, Maheshwari said, is to widen the market base by promoting garments made of VSF.
“The capital expense incurred on promoting VSF may not add our revenue or bottomline immediately, but it would reap benefit for us and the industry on the whole in long run,” he said.
Online venture
The company also plans to sell some of the garment collections made of VSF through the recently launched online venture abof.com (Aditya Birla Online Fashion).
Apart from leading domestic brands, international brands such as the Spanish fashion chain Zara and British multinational retailer Marks and Spencer have also launched new collection using fabrics made of VSF, he said.
Merger proposal
Grasim Industries expects to complete the proposed merger of Aditya Birla Chemicals with itself by March next year, said Maheshwari.
In February, the Grasim board had approved a proposal to issue one share for every 16 shares of Aditya Birla Chemicals held. As per the deal, Grasim would issue 14.62 lakh new shares, which will increase its share capital to Rs 93.31 crore.
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