…Says Rajesh Mandawewala
Barely less than three decades ago, Welspun Group was incorporated with its Textile Business Division, which as aggressive as any of its other 4 divisions, has emerged as a fully-integrated home textile giant, having modern facilities right from spinning to finishing. Known as the top vertically integrated manufacturer of towels in Asia, Welspun India Ltd is an established supplier to many of the leading global retailers including Walmart, Target, J C Penney, Kohls, and Macys. The global network covers 32 countries including the USA, the UK, Canada and Australia.
Welspun has modern manufacturing facilities at Anjar and Vapi in Gujarat, where it manufactures the entire range of home textiles for bed and bath categories. It also owns leading brands like Christy and Hygrocotton.
Rajesh Mandawewala, Managing Director, Welspun India Ltd, looks like one ever ready for new challenges. His clarity in voice and tone and his outstanding grasp of the situation makes him an ideal candidate cut out for the job of taking his company ahead in the race. He spoke candidly in an exclusive interview with Samuel Joseph, Editor of The Indian Textile Journal, on various subjects including Welspuns plans for the future, present textile scenario, and the textile race ahead.
Excerpts:
On Welspuns expansion
"We are now currently looking to invest about into 230,000 spindles, 170,000 spindles are in implementation and another 60,000 spindles will come but in 18 to 24 months from now. We are adding about 400 looms between towels and sheets put together. This will again be over a 2 or 3 year period. This we are getting into for increasing our capacity by some percentage both in towels and bed sheets; so dyeing and finishing, cutting and sewing expansions are also on. We have invested into carpet making now. This month we will start making carpets, which is not a category we were in before. So that is the new category that we are into, very prospective one, exports as well as domestic. The big business will come from exports. These are wall to wall carpets, and also under the table decorative carpets, to US, Europe, everywhere in the world.
Right now what we are doing is we are vertically integrating because in 5 years our business volumes have almost doubled but we did not vertically integrate, because we did not want to spend capital. We added not one spindle in the last 5 years. We added not one loom in the last 5 years. We are catching up now. The expansion will take place in the existing facilities. We have enough land in Anjar, we still have about 500 acres of unused land only in the textile company and apart from this all-in-all we have got 1200 acres of unused land still. So we have enough land there and also in Vapi, the first unit that we had in Vapi we are modernising. The plant is 20 years old now.
When your customers come and tell you that we want you to be in this business, so we will look at it. But I do not know as we have enough on our hands right now. The day we feel we are maxing out on this side is the day we will give a serious thought to other areas. Right now our hands are full with what we are doing and we are pretty happy with where we are."
On Home Textiles Market
"In home textiles, it is only all about India, Pakistan and China. You do not have Vietnam, Cambodia, Bangladesh, because they do not occupy a big share. They are in garments. But in home textiles, 85 per cent of the world market belongs to India, Pakistan and China. In sheets these 3 countries used to be one-third each, and towels was also almost the same. But now we ar