Birla Cotsyn to start garment making

Birla Cotsyn, the flagship yarn-making entity of the Yash Birla

Group, plans to foray into finished fabric products with a thrust on garment manufacturing. The company will set up production facilities and enter into contract manufacturing. It will set up its own processing house with facilities such as ginning, spinning, weaving, yarn-dyeing and processing at a cost of Rs 300 crores to Rs 350 crores. Birla will add 36,000 spindles at the Malkapur cotton spinning unit at Rs 60 crores over 18 months. The new processing unit at Malkapur for dyeing and finishing is to start commercial operations by September ’11 with a capacity of one million meters per month.

The company plans to set up the entire value chain process such as ginning, spinning, weaving, yarn dying, final fabric and retailing under the Birla Cotsyn brand. An additional capacity of 6,000 spindles would be created at the Khamgaon spinning unit at Rs 10 crores with the addition of an open-end cotton spinning machine. Adding to it the company will set up 1.50 mw wind mill for captive consumption in Maharashtra. Birla Cotsyn has three manufacturing units at two locations in the country. The synthetic unit at Khamgaon has a capacity of 300 tons and the cotton yarn unit at Malkapur has a capacity of 330 tons. The yarn major aims to increase the total capacity from 1,000 to 1,200 tons of yarn per unit. The investment for this segment could be around Rs 150 crores. Moreover, the company may take over a garment manufacturing company or retail chain or retail brand depending on the situation. The company expects to clock a turnover of Rs 400 crores by March 2011 with a profit before tax of Rs 16 crores.