Wide gap between designers & denim mills – Mr Dudeja, Denim Club

29 Sep '09

6 min read

Order book positions of the very promising denim sector are full since the last few months, after the lull which set in, due to the unfolding of the global economic crisis and the recessionary trends which followed in its wake. A lot of denim manufacturing companies are euphoric about that the fact that the fortunes of the largest exported product category, from the amongst the basket of textile exports has finally turned around on its heels and is also reset to grow again at the same scorching pace, it had set in the last few years.

Fibre2fashion spoke exclusively to Mr Rajesh Dudeja, who is the Founder member of the Denim Club India. Denim Club India is an ambitious initiative to make available a unified platform to all denim professionals in India - where they can meet, interact with each other, and share thoughts, ideas and achievements and also serves as a business center for buyers and sellers of denim fabrics and denim garments. It is also a social and professional networking place for professionals involved in denim related activities - be it manufacturing, marketing, sourcing, trading, designing, conversion into made-ups, merchandising, retailing, etc.

Mr Dudeja said, “Looking at the overall situation, in the short term perspective, currently with the revival of economy in India and countries like Japan and France, export orders for denim have been coming in and the Indian mills are now operating at full capacity and the positive trend is expected to continue through the year and moreover, the Indian denim industry has benefited from the production cuts in China, due to increasing labour, fuel costs. Several Chinese mills have had to curtail their capacity and there have been reports of non-execution of denim orders from China”.

He added by saying, “Similarly, other suppliers of denim have also been facing problems, and Indian denim industry has for sure been the gainer and this has presented Indian players an opportunity to increase their global market share and while looking at the global scenario, in a different dimension, though the global demand for denim has not increased much recently, the depreciating rupee and Indian companies having become more competitive, have been able to bag orders from customers who were previously procuring denim from other countries such as Turkey and Mexico.

Commenting on the evolution and progress of the Indian denim industry, he said, “Conventionally, the Indian denim industry has been feeding the supply chain of global buying houses and retailers and if one would notice that, even though India is a cotton rich country, and denim is all about cotton, we entered the denim segment very late, and that also could happen due to the efforts put in by Mr PR Roy – rightly known as the 'Father of Denim' in India”.

“But if we look at the evolution of denim industry in India, it is easy to see that India did not achieve much in this field and as of date there is over capacity in suiting and shirting, and denim is the only area growing fast as far as textiles is concerned and increased demand in the rural and semi-urban areas will be the main driver of growth for the denim industry along with which, domestic as well as global brands in India have continued their expansion which in itself is an indication of the trend.

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