Shri Lakshmi Cotsyn to invest heavily in Technical Textiles

September 15, 2011 - India

Shri Laxmi Cotsyn is planning to expand Rs 9.97 billion in technical textiles, denim fabrics and sheeting divisions and it will be operational by the year-end.

Apart from this, it is setting up new production facilities to manufacture blackout fabric used in curtains, flex fabrics, nuclear bio-chemical fabrics and multi spectrum camouflage net as well as infrared reflector fabric.

The technical textiles expansion has entailed an investment of a massive Rs 4.82 billion, with the rest of the expansion and new manufacturing facilities accounting for the rest. In technical textiles, the return on investment (ROI) is expected to be around 22-24% while for denim and sheeting, the ROI will be around 14-16%.

Giving details, Mr Rakesh Srivastava, CFO - Shri Lakshmi Cotsyn said, “We are expanding technical textiles capacity from 18.5 million meters to 78.5 million meters. This includes fusible interlinings, which is mainly used cuffs, collars, etc. We are the number -1 producer of fusible interlinings in India under the brand name ‘Star Track’ and have about 35% market share. We are expanding capacity of this division from 12.5 million meters to 25 million meters.”

“Moreover, we shall be setting up a greenfield project to manufacture blackout fabric. This fabric can be used in hotels as well as in houses and offices. When used in curtains, this fabric enables complete darkness and will help a lot in conservation of energy as air conditioners will be more effective.”

“There is huge demand for this fabric. Swedish company – IKEA, a retailer of functional home furnishing products has given us an order in advance and the entire capacity will be manufactured for IKEA.”

“Next is the flex fabric that is used in banners and hoardings. Right now in India, only SRS is producing it and that too with a small capacity and the size of the fabric is also only 3.5 mm whereas our size will be 5.5 mm. Currently, India imports most of its requirements.”

“Besides these, we will be producing nuclear bio-chemical fabric, the capacity of which will be 10 million meters per annum and which will be supplied only to defense establishment. The nuclear biochemical suits made from these fabrics will protect our soldiers in case of chemical warfare.”

“Other than this, we shall also be producing multi-spectrum camouflage net as well as infrared reflector fabric. This will again be for defense purposes because; it cannot be seen from the radar or with naked eye or with binoculars or any thermal imaging”, he winded up by saying. "