Incorporated in 1997, Pratibha Syntex Pvt Ltd- India's first vertical manufacturing set up, made its foray into organic farming in the year 1999. In the following year, the company adopted forward integration into Knitting-Dyeing-Garments. Today the Group is a fully Integrated Textile Company with a turnover of Rs 500 crores and interests in raw cotton, cotton & blended yarn, knitted fabric , casual & high fashion garments. It enjoys the unique distinction of being the largest organic cotton producer in India.
Mr Shreyaskar Chaudhary, MD, is a young second generation entrepreneur known world round as a key figure in the sustainable development of India’s textile future. As Managing Director, Mr Chaudhary`s visionary approach, dynamic leadership, and thrust for innovation has earned Pratibha many accolades.
Mr Chaudhary has served as board member of the Organic Exchange and works closely with government agencies to promote the sustainability cause in India, and participates in worldwide international textile fairs and symposiums centered around the sustainability agenda. Guided by the unified objective of promoting social equity, economic stability and environment protection, he leads a strategic team in implementing a number of globally exemplified sustainable initiatives at Pratibha titled SEED initiatives. His efforts in fashioning the new face of business archetype has earned him acclaim in the global community. He frequently lectures and imparts his knowledge of sustainable industrial practices back home and overseas, thus inspiring the next generation sustainability.
Speaking candidly with Face2Face team, Mr Shreyaskar Chaudhary shares his perspective on global as well as Indian textile industry in current times.
fibre2fashion:
Mr Chaudhary, it’s a pleasure for Face2Face team to welcome you. Your company has spent over a decade now in this industry. In your view, how has the company been able to epitomize its name ‘Pratibha’ – a Hindi synonym of ‘Intelligence’, ‘Ability’, and ‘Talent’ over this span?
Mr Shreyaskar Chaudhary
For us the being behind Pratibha goes beyond the literal, it embodies a constant endeavor to push the boundaries, surpass expectations & innovate outside the envelope to realize the larger goal of social well being, growth & development.
To sum it up I `ld just like to add a few lines by a great English novelist Benjamin Disraeli : “the greatest good you can do for another is not just share your riches but to reveal to him his own.”
Having started our operations with just spinning in 1997 we upstreamed our processes to integrate organic cotton fiber cultivation , fabric knitting , dyeing , printing & garmenting to complete our textile value chain sustaining 7000 employees at the manufacturing level & 28000 members at farm level in a way that is ecologically & socially relevant.
fibre2fashion:
Appreciable!
So, has the global industry changed by and large in this decade?
Mr Shreyaskar Chaudhary
Personally I feel the Key global trends to have shaped the industry in the past decade are:
End of quotas regime in 2005 that created huge opportunities for some developing economies marking a shift of business from South American to Asian countries, with specific benefits in Africa establishing of large capacities across entire value chain.
Secondly the biggest economic recession of all times experienced over the past two years caused huge volatilities in the market, the companies which were experiencing growth in the pre- recession era went into the mode of slump during recession causing huge volatilities in commodity prices in crude and cotton prices shooting the yarn prices to an all time high in the post recession era.
Another trend evolving in the past decade is the coming of age of fast fashion as a central pivot of successful business models like Zara, H & M, and a host of other UK retailers like The Primark, the Primark effect in UK led to a surge in throwaway cheap fashion even in the wake of rising costs of raw material forcing other global retailers in the fray to cut down their lead times and inventory levels.
Another manifestation of the Primark effect (which has seen the amount of unwanted clothes being dumped in landfill soar from 7% to 30 per cent in UK in the last five year and similar phenomenon across the world) would be the emerging class of eco-conscious consumers inclined to make a difference through their purchase of longer lasting/better quality /environmentally sustainable clothing. Consumers are shifting their focus away from disposability of goods to durability of textiles.
Global retailers like M & S, WALMART, Patagonia, and Tesco are increasingly innovating offering, exceeding their product basket of sustainable apparel products. Eco-Giants such as Shell and Toyota are also committed to do their bit in addressing energy security and Climate Change issues.
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