Date:03/05/2006 URL: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2006/05/03/stories/2006050301522100.htm

Back Gangotri plans to enter shirts, women's wear

R.Y. Narayanan

To open exclusive outlets

The company has consolidated its position in the garment segment in the South through `Tibre'

Wearing it thick
Gangotri Textiles had graduated from commodity (yarn) business to garment manufacture.
It has consolidated its position in the garment segment in the South through its `Tibre' brand

Coimbatore , May 2

Gangotri Textiles Ltd (GTL), which manufactures the Tibre brand of trousers, is planning to enter the shirts segment as well as women's wear.

The company, which markets its garments through multi-brand outlets, is planning to open exclusive outlets and the first such outlet will come up in Mumbai in the next few months.

Speaking to Business Line, Mr Manoj Kumar Tibrewal, Managing Director, GTL, said once the expansion project is completed, the capacity of the garment unit would increase from 1,000 pieces (trousers) per day to 4,000 pieces. The share of yarn business in the overall sales was 87 per cent while garments accounted for 13 per cent now. Since yarn manufacturewas a proven business model for the company, it would continue to be given importance.

But after the completion of expansion project, the share of yarn business would come down to around 34 per cent as the future growth was expected to come from fabric and garment manufacture. The share of fabric business would be around 55 per cent of sales and the rest would come from the garment business.

He said that the GTL had graduated from commodity (yarn) business to garment manufacture and there was a missing link in the business model, which the expansion project would help to bridge. The daily fabric manufacture would be around 50,000 metres and the company hoped to export about 30 per cent of the fabrics manufactured by it from the first year onwards.

The company has consolidated its position in the garment segment in the South through its `Tibre' brand and entered the western market in Gujarat and Maharashtra and recently launched its products in Chandigarh. It would complete the circle by entering the market in eastern India.

Mr Tibrewal, when asked whether he was planning to enter the jeans segment as well as men's wear, he said after the capacity expansion, the company wanted to enter shirts and women's wear market. Normally, the volume of shirts was twice that of trousers and the women's wear segment was still at a nascent stage of development.

He said at present, around 650 multi-brand outlets were stocking Tibre and 100 more would be added to the list this year. The company has plans to open exclusive outlets to sell its garments but this would have to wait till its shirts range hits the market, for which a pilot launch has been planned within the next three months.

Mr Vasudevan, President, Projects, GTL, said initially the company planned to open 12-15 exclusive outlets in all metros and then move to `A' and `B' grade cities. The plan was to have 40-50 exclusive outlets throughout the country.