Interview with Mr Rajinder Gupta

Face2Face

Mr Rajinder Gupta
CEO & MD
Abhishek Industries Ltd - Trident Group

Located in the heart of Punjab, Abhishek Industries Limited (AIL) – Trident Group is one of India’s leading and flourishing textile houses, a part of a Rs. 25 billion global conglomerate. Incorporated in 1990, with an installation capacity of 17,280 spindles, the Group soon grew by leaps and bounds and its journey for expansion led to exports to over 65 countries across 5 continents. In less than a decade AIL emerged among the top five global terry towel giants. The group’s prime interest lies in yarn, paper and chemicals. Today, the Group has 29 years of expertise and a workforce of more than 10,000 employees. Achieving a compound annual growth rate of over 30% presently, the company is rated as one of the fastest growing companies of the country. Over the years, the Group has also received several awards, the prestigious 'International Supplier of the year Award' by Walmart, USA for the year 2001, 2003, 2005 & 2006. The Company has been recognized as the ‘Best Governed Company of India’ and conferred with ‘ICSI National Award for Excellence in Corporate Governance’, 2006. At the helm of this dynamic company is Mr Rajinder Gupta who has been serving as CEO & MD since 1992. A first generation entrepreneur and possessing over 2 decades of industry experience, Mr Gupta has rich and varied exposure at promoting industrial ventures holding Directorship of various companies. He had also been the Vice Chairman of CII Punjab State Council for 2006-7, Director of Punjab Technical University and Punjab State Board of Technical Education & Industrial Training. Besides being member of several trade & management bodies, he is also actively associated with several philanthropic ventures. Mr Rajinder Gupta has been awarded the "PHD Chamber of Commerce Distinguished Entrepreneurship Award- 2005,” presented by The President of India on 21st December 2005. He was also conferred upon the “Udyog Ratna" award for 2005 by PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry. In his second appearance on Face2Face, Mr Rajinder Gupta narrates current movements in Indian textile industry in the wake of economic turmoil, and the spirit that drives the company successfully.

Once again, Face2Face extends its warm welcome, Mr Gupta! How if we begin the talk with a piece of information from you on the business faring presently at Trident Group and also about the change your group has gone since 2006 – year when we had our previous talk on this channel?

At Trident, we have grown through the years, by questioning existing paradigms and by challenging assumptions. We also believe that success is the outcome of continuous improvement, perpetual edification and sustained reinvention. In the last few years we have conscientiously focused on and undertaken various resource-building initiatives like Capacity Expansion and Modernization, Corporate Governance, Stakeholder Engagement and a well researched shift towards Technological Excellence. We have set up the world’s largest wheat-straw based paper mill and expanded our Yarn facility in Budhni, M.P. Our project of the second phase of expansion at Budni, to take the total number of spindles to 1, 00,800 involving a total capital outlay of Rs. 3737 million is on track.

Impressive! But the year bygone had been very challenging for all industries across the globe. What say?

I am totally in agreement with you that the industry is getting challenged day by day and I am sure challenges are not over yet and they would continue but of different nature this year. Last year, it was recession in the market to which I must say Indian industry has coped up very well by really showing strong release in terms of value-additions and strong conviction towards bettering quality and cost. This time the challenges would emerge out of input cost, especially- Cotton prices.

So, how would Trident fight this challenge?

First of all, this is not just Trident’s challenge but one that every industry is going to face. And the challenges are not what we decide; the ultimate decision is going to lie with the customers & buyers. Practically, it has to be well discovered what we can do best for our customers and understand how customers are really willing to compensate for that; and this can’t happen over night.

Published on: 14/12/2009

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.