Coimbatore-based KPR Mill Ltd, one of the largest integrated textile companies that straddles across product segments ranging from yarn to garments, has commissioned the expanded garment manufacturing capacity of 10 million pieces a year at its garment unit at Arasur near here.

The company’s fabric processing facility at the SIPCOT industrial estate at Perundurai in Erode district, where work was discontinued after an incident in which some workers where asphyxiated to death in March this year, has also reopened.

In a communication to the stock exchanges, the company said that the capacity at its garment unit at Arasur has been increased by 10 million pieces a year and production began on June 24.

This has taken the garment production capacity from 30 million to 40 million pieces a year in single shift. It claimed that it has ‘confirmed orders’ for the enhanced capacity and the greenfield expansion was in progress as planned. The company expects the expansion to provide direct employment to nearly 1,000 persons.

The company was also in the process of establishing at Thekkalur near Tirupur a new factory with capacity to produce 12 million pieces per year. Land for the project had already been acquired and construction has begun. The unit would become operational in the last quarter of FY 2015, providing employment to around 1,200 people. These capacity expansions were expected to increase the overall garment operations of the company by more than 50 per cent in two years, KPR Mill has said.

KPR Mill Ltd had on June 16 said that its processing unit at SIPCOT industrial estate at Perundurai in Erode district, where activities were discontinued after an accident on March 18, 2014, have resumed and the unit was operating at full capacity. Some workers of the unit died after inhaling toxic fumes from its Effluent Treatment Plant.

According to the company website, KPR Mill produces yarn, knitted grey and dyed fabric and readymade garments. Its fabric processing unit at Perundurai has capacity to process 9,000 MT/year and its garment manufacturing capacity of 63 million garments per year is one of the largest in the country.

It has also forayed into wind power generation and sugar production by establishing a co-generation cum sugar factory with 30 MW capacity of power and 5000 TCD at Almel village in Sindagi Taluk, Bijapur (DT) of Karnataka that began commercial production in November 2012. Besides, KPR has installed windmills in Tamil Nadu (Tirunelveli, Theni, Tenkasi, & Coimbatore) with a total capacity of 61.92 MW enough to meet nearly 75 per cent of its power needs.

Shares of KPR Mill have witnessed a rapid rise in the past three months. After dropping to a 52 week low of Rs 104 on March 25 this year on the NSE, the stock had bounced back to a 52 week high of Rs 256.80 on Monday. The share closed on Thursday at Rs 235.85, a loss of Rs 11.05.

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