Apparel Online India Magazine July 1st Issue 2018 | Page 38

INDIA CANVAS
Busbar guarantees equal voltage in the entire line, prevents short circuit and ensures 100% safety
strategy for the company with regard
to tees as in this category, the major
product is garment dyed tees. The
company is able to deliver repeat
orders in 15 or 20 days if the MOQ is
at least 165 pieces, per colour.
Innovations/
advancement/
sustainable
The company manufactures circular
knitted products on flat knitting machines
EXCLUSIVE
• Buyers are coming
to ITC and happily
choosing products
from the ready
stock, and the
credit for this goes
to the aggressive
use of Google as a
marketing tool.
• Sweaters are the
core product for
the company, sold
to 22 regular (mix
batch) buyers with a
major market share
in Europe and US.
• The company’s
private label GOAT
offers products
with comfort and
durability, at an
affordable price.
The innovative growth strategy of
the company is backed by many in-
house initiatives. There is a suction
system in the factory, whereby all
the hot air and loose fibres are
sucked out, filtered and clean air is
pumped back into the factory; this
is beneficial for workers’ health.
The production floor is designed
in a ‘plug and play’ manner so as
to do anything, anywhere and to
serve the need of every client. The
entire factory has 110 kilometres of
copper cable and there is no welding
running across the premises.
Everything installed in the factory is
using the ‘nut and bolt’ format, so for
it can be detached easily, if required
in future.
The factory is in the final stage of
installing a 540 tonne AC system
for 1,20,000 sq. feet area (factory
spread in 1.8 acres) as all its flat
knitting machines, its workers and
sweaters need to be kept cool. With
the investment of Rs. 7.5 crore and
technology from Blue Star, the AC
system’s starting voltage is just 2
ampere. Zahir claims that his factory
is the 8th such factory across India
to adopt this technology. This system
works on electromagnetic principles
and does not have lubricants, so
Rather than having a concrete floor, this factory has used scratch-proof industrial tiles in its entire 60,000 sq. feet
area; the stairs look beautiful too
power and running cost is less.
Pumps (Bell & Gossett) for the
same are also imported from US for
uninterrupted supply. Currently, the
factory has a pilot project for solar
energy (capacity approximately 35
kW); the target is to have solar power
capacity of 1 MW. sources, but as infrastructure is
getting completed soon, people are
in touch with Zahir for funding and
some of them are really interested
in quick delivery polo concept. They
will be integrated as marketing
partners and involved in the selling
of company’s products.
The factory is running in 3 shifts,
with an efficiency of 89 per cent; the
knitting efficiency is 75 to 80 per cent.
To optimise the use of flat knitting
machines (out of 136 flat knitting
machines, 74 are Shima Seiki, and
rest are Chinese) and to get more
design options and reduce wastage,
the company is using these machines
to make such products which are
normally made on circular knitting
machines (such as polo PK tee, which
can have many colours, repeated
in small quantities). “We sell value,
design and use our flat knitting
machines all 365 days for such
innovations. Hence customers can
work with us anytime insisting for
their products to be manufactured
here,” reasons Zahir. The company
is in the process to achieve BSCI,
SA8000 and WRAP certifications. For a budding entrepreneur like
Zahir, policy understanding and
how the country is moving is very
important. “We made 11,000 pieces
out of surplus yarns and the idea
came from stock list. As goods, more
than 6 months in stock lost input
tax credit (ICT), so looking at the
stock statement and to avail ICT, the
factory made 11,000 pieces from this
stock and sold comfortably in one
month. It was a challenge and we
made money from this challenge; I
try to implement a similar approach
everywhere,” says Zahir and further
adds that there is a lot of drive and
motivation to excel. “I believe that
for a project to run successfully,
people should believe in the project;
the next generation should start
working with us. As of now there
are few young professionals in the
company whose fathers are also
working with the company from
many years,” he adds.
Expansion
Currently, the total capacity of the
company is 1,00,000 sweaters per
month and soon another 44 Shima
Seiki flat knitting machines will
be installed. In tees, 30,000 pieces
per month are being produced and
soon it will be increased to 1,00,000
pieces per month as another 4
lines are being set up for the same.
Funding for current investments and
expansion is from banks and own
38 Apparel Online India | JULY 1-15, 2018 | www.apparelresources.com
He concludes on a positive note,
“Everybody is complaining about
market conditions, Government
policies, systems, etc., but we as
a company are talking about the
future, getting more production,
and we are not at all worried. What
is important for us is a very good
infrastructure that is not going to
fail us for many more years.”