INNOVATION and OPPORTUNITIES IN TEXTILES,
BY ML JHUNJHUNWALA, AICWA, President, RSWM Limited & BTRA.
Indian Textile industry is on thrash hold of a quantum jump with lot of opportunities which are available for grab. India ‘s domestic textile and clothing market size is $76 billion out of which $56 billion is Apparel and $20 billion is Technical Textile and Home Textiles. This is expected to go up to $315 billion with a CAGR of 14%.
India ‘s export market is of the size of $42 billion which will go up to $185 billion showing a CAGR of 11%.
India is one if the youngest country among the developing economies. Income levels of Indian household has increased which has spurred spending on textiles . Various state governments gad announced textile industry friendly policies offering attractive incentives for investment in textiles. Growth of organised retail in India will also help in expansion of our textile industry.
Following are key strengths of Indian textile industry:
1. Abundant availability of raw materials like cotton, polyester and viscose and filament yarn as competitive prices.
2. Abundant availability of skilled man power.
3.Young population with high income levels and sending power.
4. Industry friendly Govt.Policies.
5.Availability of good quality power at competitive pricing.
6. India ‘s capability to offer customized products as per need of the customer.
Indian Textile industry has opportunities in following areas:
1. Home Textiles: With the boom in housing sector and with rising no of nuclear families demand for Home Textile products like furnishing fabrics, bed linen and Terry towels is increasing rapidly.
2. Lifestyle products: with increasing income levels in Dan consumer is spending heavily on items like party wear, beach wear, sports active wear etc.
3.Automotice Textiles : With rising production of passenger cars there is a growing market for Automotive textiles, safety belts etc.
4. Medical Textiles: As spend on health care is increasing there is tremendous opportunity for Indian textiles. Sophisticated life saving devices like heart valves are made out of Polyester.
5. Technical Textiles: With the effort of Govt and Trade Associations awareness about Technical Textiles had increased and more and more Technical Textiles is getting produced.
6. Women wear: with rising population of working women spending on the women wear is increasing as the working women has to properly dress herself for working on offices and other work places. Besides thus ethnic wear continues to be a part of women’s wardrobe and spending on this is rising.
7. Kids wear: Kids wear is another area with lot of growth opportunities. Population of convent and international business school had increased rapidly and spend on school uniform has increased.
8. Defense Textiles; thus is a very large domestics and globe market which is largely untapped. A large market share of this is still in the hand of China, Korea and USA. It is high time that Indian textile industry put up required capacities to produce the large volumes required.
Besides above new sectors the traditional Apparel market is also growing. More and more young consumers are spending on branded textiles. Large international brands like Zara, M&S, Ikea, Decathlon to name a few has set up their stores in India and they are resorting to more local sourcing.
Indian Textile industry has to move up the value chain and enter into manufacture of value added texture products. It has to give more focus on product innovation , supply chain management and be focused on customer needs. Indian consumer is willing to pay provided you satisfy his needs. I have no doubt that ACCHHE DIN are not away from Indian textile industry provided they are more focused on Innovation and value addition.
