ENTREPRENEUR SPEAK
WHAT HAS BEEN YOUR BIGGEST
LEARNING FROM YOUR
PARENTS (BOTH OF WHOM ARE
ENTREPRENEURS TOO)?
Right from my grandfather’s time, we have been
helping people. My father always told me that
sustainable growth is when the locality benefits
from the growth of a business.
My father never went to college—he started
as a scrap collector, and later moved on to
making aluminium utensils before expanding
into spices, ready-to-eat foods, and textiles.
These businesses are now looked after by my
brother, Bobby. I was enlisted in the family trade
at age 13, and assigned to clean the workers’
toilets. After a year, I was ‘promoted’ to sweeping
the aluminum factory floor. Whilst studying
economics, I helped in building the textile unit.
Gradually, I was elevated—I spent a couple
of years mixing concrete and plastering,
installing and commissioning machines, gained
responsibility for one weaving machine, and
worked my way up to overseeing eight. Seeing
things from the bottom-up made me both realistic
and sensitive. To me, workers’ comfort is of
paramount importance.
THE INFANTS’ WEAR INDUSTRY
IS BOOMING, BOTH IN INDIA AND
INTERNATIONALLY. HOW DID YOU
BUILD UP YOUR PORTFOLIO?
Today, we are 100 per cent export-based, with
a client list including Walmart, Amazon, Target,
Toys“R”Us, Gerber, Carter’s, The Childrens Place,
Sam’s Club, and Mothercare. Getting these kinds
of clients initially was quite difficult.
In the early years, it was arduous to attract
potential buyers to Kerala, which is not a
traditional home of garment manufacturers.
Finally, in 2000, a buyer from Gerber
Childrenswear, an American company with an
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international retail network, visited. Impressed
by the factory and its adjacent living quarters,
the buyer placed an order worth US$5,000,
a massive boost for Kitex at the time. Gerber
remains our biggest customer till date.
I found that parents of infants aged up to 24
months compromise on their own costs but not
on their children’s. I saw this as an opportunity,
and by 2005, we had become a 100 per cent
infant-specialised factory.
YOU HAVE AN ADMIRABLE POLICY OF
STOPPING WORK AT 5 PM. CAN YOU
TALK A LITTLE BIT ABOUT THAT?
Everyone stops work at 5 PM here. By 5:05
PM, the garment machines are programmed to
stop via a sophisticated Siemens control panel.
By 5:10 PM, the buses leave, carrying all local
workers back to their homes. By 5:15 PM, all
managers and I call it a day, leaving the huge
facility in the hands of the security team.
I believe that working overtime makes
employees stressful, which largely affects their
productivity. We are able to handle work efficiently
with the current work manner and atmosphere.
Despite this 9-to-5 schedule, we produce
5.5 lakh finished garments and ship them daily
in containers. Not only that, we also have a 30
per cent EBITDA (Earnings before interest, tax,
depreciation and amortisation) level, while many
of our peers are producing single-digit profit
percentages, or none at all.
YOU HAVE INVESTED HEAVILY IN THE
WELFARE OF YOUR EMPLOYEES. CAN
YOU ELABORATE ON THAT?
When I established my factory, I made sure
that it provided accommodation and meals for
each of my employees. I was concerned about
the workers and their welfare; I also made it a
centrally air-conditioned space. I placed a lot of