Interview with Mr B Sriramulu

Mr B Sriramulu
MD
KG Group

India and China will continue to be a dominant player..

‘To fulfill your needs, we go a whole nine yards’- governed by such a customer oriented approach, KG Group of companies has set tradition in textiles industry, in particularly being master in Denim since long span of 70 years. Started in 1932 as a cotton trading venture, the Group is now a totally integrated textile conglomerate involved in ginning, spinning, manufacturing denim, and terry products. Along with denim fabrics and apparels, the Group also includes home textiles range - Bed range, Bath range, and Kitchen range, in its product folio. Besides denim fabrics, the Group has introduced successful denim apparel brand –Trigger. Headquartered in Coimbatore in India, the Rs 1250 crore KG Group caters clientele across the globe. Driven by innovations, the Group has established Research and Development unit recognized by the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of India. Mr B Sriramulu is the Managing Director of KG Denim Limited. Aged 44 years, he has been heading various companies in the Textile Industry over the last two decades. He is also a Director in various paper mills in Tamilnadu. On academic front, Mr Sriramulu is an Engineer in Textile Technology from Bharathiar University, Tamilnadu and also holds Masters degree in Science (Textile Technology) from the University of Manchester, UK. He is the eldest son of Shri KG Balakrishnan, Chairman, KG Group. Mr Sriramulu, in another talk on KG Group with Ms Madhu Soni, Managing Editor & Correspondent –Face2Face, divulges recent developments at the group and shares from his analysis on current denim market world over.

Face2Face team is glad for one more opportunity of a talk about KG Denim Group, Mr Sriramulu! How will you describe developments at KG Denim Group for past 3 years?

KG Denim has diversified the product range to include bottom weights, bed linen in the home textile category. This investment has helped in adverse revenue stream and revenue from denim fabric amounts to 70%. We foresee denim to be in similar range in the next few years.

If asked to make a regional analysis, which all countries would sound best performing in current textile scenario?

India and China will continue to be a dominant player as our strengths are domestic market and cotton availability. Bangladesh, Vietnam and Southern American countries and a few African countries will also grow.

So over these years, has your Group’s market focus changed from international to domestic?

Our focus has always been both domestic and exports. We will continue to have a revenue stream of 60% domestic and 40% exports.

Denim being the core product, how has it evolved in the company? What would be your comments on its market world over?

New developments are done keeping in mind the overseas market. We always look forward treating Denim to various finishes.

Denim as a product will always remain in every house hold and this makes it a unique product. Need not to say, people prefer wearing Denim as office and casual wear the world over. Denim is experimented in various applications and it is successful.

Current times, particularly in context of raw materials are trying times. Isn’t it? Now as the cotton prices, in specific, have gone down, will this bring in some justification to OPM for cotton-made makers?

Cotton prices are volatile, and though prices are moderated, it is difficult to predict the future. Though margins are stable currently and in the near term, it is difficult to speculate future margin for cotton producers.

‘Trigger’ was triggered to capture potential US market. How is this brand doing? Does it need some exclusivity to please US consumers?

Trigger was set up for both Domestic and Export business. However with the limited capital available, Trigger is sold in Middle East, Sri Lanka and Singapore markets. Trigger continues to do well in the domestic market.

Big brands are giving a lot of stress on sustainable fabric making partners; getting fussy on child labor and sandblasting etc. How is KG Denim Group best partner in this regard?

KG Denim has invested in Ozone machine for washing, thus avoiding sandblasting and other harmful practices.KG Denim is fully aware of the social compliances.

#######

Click here for previous Face2Face with KG Group

Published on: 27/06/2011

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.

Print this interview