Malwa clocks in 22 per cent higher growth

Malwa Industries, a premium manufacturer of denim fabrics is on a fast growth track having clocked in 22 per cent higher growth against last year. With growth in all three market sectors viz: large distributor-based markets; store group retailers;

and actual brand side of business; Malwa is on a new high. Ludhiana-based Malwa Industries is the business arm of the well-known Vidyasagar Oswal Group. The company also supplies denim fabrics for women’s wear, which is a large segment in India today with many brands which earlier had large men’s collections now focusing on women’s denim.

“At the moment we are a niche premium denim maker. We produce one-and-a-half-million meters a month. Within that we have our own apparel manufacturing as well. We make jeans for export. Fabrics for my exports within that are 70 per cent at the moment, 15 per cent is for my own garments and the other 15 per cent is for the domestic market. We export 180,000 units a month. In my India plant, I can do two-and-a-half million units,” says Rajesh Narkar, Chief Marketing Officer of Malwa Industries. He feels with exposure to international trends, the domestic market for denim is just about catching up with new brands changing the market dynamics and this has been extremely beneficial for the company.

“We are now starting to work on spring ’12. Fall/winter ’11-’12.Vintage is still very strong in terms of product. In colors, there is 70s indigo as well as pure dark indigo. These are the two main colors: Icy black and grey are also coming in strongly. We are largely a stretch company. About 70 per cent of our product line is stretch. In denim, we have comfort stretch, super stretch. In the 100 per cent cotton area, we are very innovative especially on our dyestuffs. We do very deep dark dyeing, dark colors, dense and heavy constructions because of the looms we have, finishing that’s different,” he adds.

With a manufacturing unit at Macchiwara in Ludhiana, Malwa Industries has a capacity of 15 million meters a year in terms of fabric. It is supplying to almost all the premium brands in the domestic market such as Levi’s, Pepe, Killer, Lee, Wrangler, Lee Cooper, Mufti, Spykar. Globally, it supplies to Levi’s, Gap, Calvin Klein, Armani Exchange, Marks and Spencer, Top Shop, Klopman, Jack and Jones, Next, Zara among others.

As part of their product development cycle, Malwa Industries does two main collections which are seasonal. Besides this they also do two further injections within the season which are to react faster. Not being satisfied with being in the top bracket denim fabric manufacturer in the country, Malwa also considers itself as a global company. It runs an apparel unit in Jordan called Third Dimension.