Piyush Chandarana
President Soma Textiles & Industries Ltd
Indian denim consumption is 550-600 million meters per annum
Soma Textiles is a leading manufacturer of denim fabric, cotton piece dyed fabric, denim jeans garmenting and ring- and open-end yarn. Piyush Chandrana, president of Soma Textiles shares some market information pertaining to denim in India in an interview with fibre2fashion.com.
Any plans of stepping into the branded apparel market?
We are already in the branded denim apparel market. We sell our own brand online only, as our garment capacity is full with various Indian or international brands. So, we have not been able to launch our own full-fledged brand. Therefore, we are first increasing our capacity of garment plants, and then working on our own brand 'Y-not'.
How has the denim industry shaped up in India? What trends do you expect in this segment in the next two years?
At present, the Indian denim market is something like this:
Installed denim capacity is around 1200 million metres per annum
Trends of increasing denim capacity are 250 million metres per annum up to 2020
Indian consumption of denim in present case is 550-600 million metres per annum, and 350 million metres per annum in case of exports
How big is the unorganised denim market?
The ratio between the organised and unorganised denim markets is 1:3. So, the unorganised market is 75 per cent of the total sales.
Denim is considered to be one of the most polluting industries. What steps have you taken to ensure that your unit is environment-friendly?
We are very conscious about environmental issues, and it was our higher management agenda to make the unit environment-friendly. Our company vision also mentions more focus on environment-friendly processes.
Water pollution: If we compare our polluted water generation with previous years, we have reduced around 39 per cent polluted water generation with the same production ratio. We have done everything possible in water conservation by water recycling. We are working on the use of foam denim dyeing technology, which requires 20 per cent less water consumption as compared to the present consumption.
Air pollution: We have ordered ESP for our boiler, and will install it shortly to control air pollution. We have converted some of our machines on direct CNG fire which is a clean fuel. We have also converted our boiler on imported coal which has no NOX emission.
Noise pollution: We are monitoring noise pollution every six months, and we are very much within the limit.
What type of denim is most in demand now?
The following types of denim are in demand:
Structure denim
Over-dyed and peach-finish denim
Wider-width poly products in lower segments
Double count TFO denim or double cloth denim
Open construction with weft exposure
Shirting and dobby shirting
What is the kind of R&D that you do on denim?
Due to the stiff competition in the denim market, the product lifecycle becomes shorter. Therefore, we are continuously doing R&D. We are focusing on the following products in denim with R&D.
What has been your growth percentage in the last three years? What is the target set for the next two years?
Our growth was 2-3 per cent in the past two years due to very poor demand, very high competitive price, and selling with long credit terms. Therefore, we started our 30 per cent business with job work of total production. We are now targeting for a double-digit growth for the next two years, and expanding our plant by adding value-added facilities like Lycra attachments, mercerised facility, expansion, etc.
Published on: 25/05/2015
DISCLAIMER: All views and opinions expressed in this column are solely of the interviewee, and they do not reflect in any way the opinion of Fibre2Fashion.com.
