Tibre-maker in talks with garment cos to produce grey fabric

COIMBATORE: Gangotri Textiles (GTL), which owns the menswear brand Tibre, is said to be in talks with a couple of Indian garment manufacturers for partnering them in the production of grey fabric at its newly set up weaving and processing unit at Perundurai in Erode district.

It has started trial production of grey fabric with Picanol looms at the facility since last week. Commercial production is likely to start from December 2006. By then, it hopes to finalise prospective partners, a company source said.

The company plans to expand and forward integrate at its existing Udumalpet facility by setting up two new units — a ring spinning unit of 19,200 spindles and another unit of 31,200 spindles capacity which will produce polyester cotton yarn.
Once completed, the capacity of its garment unit would increase four-fold from the present 1,000 pieces to 4,000 pieces a day, according to GTL president (projects) C R Vasudevan.

For funding the investments, the company has already raised Rs 350 crore of which Rs 295 crore was by way of term loans and Rs 55 crore through a public issue.

Close on the heels of entering into a strategic alliance with Trailer, a Switzerland-based company for co-branding its products in Europe and Asia, GTL is looking forward to establish its footprint in the hitherto untapped North America and the UAE.

As such, it is scouting for business partners in these countries to enter into strategic partnerships for co-branding and jointly marketing its products, he said.