Date:14/12/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/12/14/stories/2007121456311800.htm

Business

Carrera to assemble shuttleless looms

Staff Reporter

Identifies consortium of 20 companies in Coimbatore for the project

COIMBATORE: Carrera Holdings of Italy proposes to assemble shuttleless looms here using Vinci technology. These looms will cost between Rs. 1.50 lakh and Rs. 2 lakh each and will be mainly for the Indian and Asian markets (excluding China).

Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Carrera Holdings, Vivek Jacob, told presspersons here that a consortium of 20 companies was identified in Coimbatore for this project. “The first prototype will be out in the next 12 months,” he said.

Carrera Holdings planned to invest about $120 million (about Rs. 480 crore) in different projects in India over three years through Banyan Tree Holdings. Carrera initially planned to invest about $ 95 million (about Rs. 380 crore) in the country and this had been scaled up now.

The loom project here would have about $4 million investment and would be able to produce nearly 20,000 looms annually. “We have a broad plan and we have done the costing for the project,” he said. Nearly 80 per cent of its textile engineering activity in India was likely to be in the Coimbatore region.

Mr. Jacob said the company also planned to increase its outsourcing of knitted and woven garments from India. Next year, it planned to source about three million pieces. The company would continue with its proposed projects for garment processing at Solapur and textile machinery at Kholapur.