Date:30/12/2004 URL: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2004/12/30/stories/2004123002140200.htm

Back Siyaram plans to enter home furnishing

Anna Peter

Mr Ramesh Poddar, Vice-Chairman & Managing Director, Siyaram Silk Mills Ltd, at a press conference to launch `Featherz' fabric in Mumbai on Wednesday. - Shashi Ashiwal

Mumbai , Dec. 29

SIYARAM Silk Mills Ltd has decided to enter the home furnishing segment. According to Mr S. P. Shah, President, Marketing, the company had taken an "in principle" decision to enter the segment in 2005 and is working out details.

He added that the market potential was enormous and that any production undertaken would be aimed at the export market, especially the US and European markets.

The flagship company of the Rs 1,125-crore Siyaram Poddar group is also due to invest Rs 22 crore in expanding capacity in 2005. It has already added 48 looms at its Tarapur and Silvassa units.

The company recently test marketed a new suiting product Featherz in Delhi and Uttar Pradesh. It increased capacity at its Daman unit from five lakh metres to eight lakh metres a month for this product. This would draw in revenues of Rs 125 crore annually, said Mr Ramesh Poddar, Vice-Chairman and Managing Director of the company. The new product is priced at Rs 225-400 per meter.

The product, Mr Poddar said, has already drawn favourable responses from international retailers and Indian manufacturers. In 2005, the company is planning to set up a garment unit in Tarapur at a cost of Rs 5 crore.

Mr Shah said: "Textiles is our core business and we are looking at forward integration and the ready-to-wear market."

He added that there was huge sourcing potential within the Indian market. Garment exporters and manufacturers were sourcing their raw material from abroad and the company was looking to convert some of these manufacturers into potential customers. Currently exports account for 20 per cent of the company's output.

Mr Poddar said the company was expecting to post a turnover of about Rs 330 crore for the year ended March 2005.

The company hoped to raise the turnover to about Rs 425 crore in 2006.

The company hopes to raise its share of the fabric market to 20 per cent from the present 15 per cent.