Interview with Mr. Harish Cherukuri

Mr. Harish Cherukuri
Managing Director
Priyadarshini Spinning Mills Ltd

Founded in 1983 by a well experienced technocrat, Mr. C. K. Rao, Priyadarshini Spinning Mill Ltd. is a well established mill as a manufacturer and marketer of cotton and synthetic blended spun yarn. The company clocked a turnover of Rs 152 Crores in the year 2005-06, and is listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange. It is ISO 9001 certified and has the status of an Export House. PSM has also acquired O-tex standard recently. It has made a foray in the direction of fabric and garment exports to principal customers in India and abroad. Its domestic customers include Raymonds Ltd, Siyarams Silk Mills Ltd, Donear Industries and BSL Ltd among others. PSM also exports to over twenty countries in South America, Europe, Asia and the Middle East. Mr. Harish Cherukuri, who has accomplished his Masters of Business Administration from Illinois Institute of Technology Chicago, USA and Bachelors of Commerce from Indian Institute of Management and Commerce, is the Managing Director of Priyadarshini Spinning Mills. In his present capacity Mr. Cherukuri is in charge of new projects, purchase development, business development, labour & customer relations, all of which fall under the umbrella of operations and general administration. He has further contributed to the success and expansion of PSM by suggesting a partnership-based approach with suppliers. He is also involved in strategy planning for the organization, and his contribution has resulted in considerable business development. He has held a number of key leadership positions during his career at PSM including the position of an Executive Director where he gained experience in the fields of production and marketing. Apart from focusing his proficiency on work he is also interested in music, reading, Hi-Technology gadgets and socializing. Face2Face is glad to welcome Mr. Cherukuri for sharing his outlook on various issues from Textile and allied Industries.

Can you tell us about the range of products offered by Priyadarshini Spinning Mills Limited?

"As of now, Priyadarshini has 3 broad activities. They are Yarn, Yarn Dyeing and Garment manufacturing. The details are as follows: Yarn Polyester/Viscose blends in Grey and Dyed in counts from Ne 20s – Ne 76s 100 percent Cotton spun yarn in Grey in counts from Ne 40s – Ne 60s Yarn Dyeing 100 percent Cotton spun yarn and 100 percent Polyester spun yarn in count range of Ne 20s – Ne 76s Garments Casual and Dress shirts"

What cutting edge solutions does your organization utilize to keep competition at bay?

We are investing in modern technology to cut operating costs. We are trying to be as lean as possible in our manufacturing. We are trying to move towards value – added products to reduce the pressure of competition.

Experts are of the opinion that future growth in textile industry will be garment driven. How far do you agree with this?

"I agree with this comment partially. With the retail industry becoming organized and with big players like Reliance and Walmart planning to set up shop, they will be able to drive down the cost of apparel. This will increase consumption as garments will be within reach for a larger segment of our population. The per capita consumption of apparel in India is still low. This is also expected to increase as the economy continues to be on the fast track. Worldwide in the developed countries, apparel and non apparel share of the textile market is 50 – 50 percent. In India, 90 percent of all textile consumption is apparel related. However, as the economy continues to grow at 8 percent, the buying power of the people in the country increases. So after buying clothes, they begin to spend on non apparel related products like home furnishings etc. Also, the consumption of technical textiles also increases as we become more developed. Whether it is Geo – textiles, or medical textiles, or automobile textiles, the consumption is going to increase. So while the medium – term pull will be from apparel, the growth in the long – term is going to come from non textile related products."

What is the positioning of the Indian garment industry in the world market?

"India is known to be able to deliver complicated products in small lots at a moderate cost. India has an edge in doing garments which require embroidery, or other such works on it. Because we have more small factories than large ones, we are more suited to catering to small size orders. The most competitive country for manufacturing of apparel is China. Every large retailer is sourcing from there. However, as a de-risking strategy, they would like to develop other alternative locations also to source from regularly. It is in this scenario that India scores well amongst the rest of the market."

While big-ticket retailers like Wal-Mart and Tesco trying to enter India, what is your outlook for the retail industry?

The retail industry is going to reduce the cost of transaction and pass on the benefit to the end users. It is also going to make it more convenient for the customers to shop for more things in one location. However, as the retail is going to get more organized, it is going to displace a large number of small shop owners, who will loose their business as they become less competitive and inconvenient to buy from. There is going to be some degree of social unrest generated out of this development.

Is there any scope for adopting nanotechnology within your company and what is its commercial scope as far as India is concerned?

At this moment, we are not planning any investment where we could incorporate products using nano-technology into our product line. There is good scope for such technology to be incorporated into garments and into other applications. Also this technology can be used in various other industries for various applications. However, as with any new product that would sell in the niche category, it would take time for product introduction and market penetration. There will not be much commercial activity as far as textiles is concerned, at least for the next 5 years.

How confident are you about the achievement of India’s textiles and apparel export targets for the year 2010? What step do you propose that will help achieve this target?

The achievement of this target to a large extent depends on the benefits that the government of India will extend to the textile industry for the next 3 years especially in the area of processing. Because of lack of good processing, significant amount of fabric is being imported from China. We will not be competitive if we have to import fabric and make the garments. Therefore the government needs to encourage development of good process houses by development of infrastructure in providing land, water, power and effluent treatment facilities at competitive cost.

Published on: 01/01/2007

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.