Work on Kitex Ltd.’s two swank facilities– one in the Kakatiya Mega Textile Park at Warangal and the other at Sitarampur near Hyderabad– is going on as per plan.
By 2025, both the factories will be in full swing and will have production capacity of combined 2.4 million pieces per day. The existing capacity of the company is 8 lakh pieces per day capacity in Kerala.
Sabu Jacob, MD of the company, believes “once both facilities produce to capacity, no one will be able to beat us.We are confident of overtaking Chinese manufacturers and becoming world’s largest infantwear manufacturer.”
Together, both sites will create 22,000 direct jobs and 25,000 indirect jobs.
The company would be producing new items also like children’s socks, and sleepwear made of fleece, which has been a Chinese monopoly so far. Importantly, it is also adding eight new clients –in addition to increasing supplies to existing customers.
As per a report published in Business Line, a leading business daily, the first phase of the production at Kakatiya will begin in January 2023.The unit will produce to full capacity by January 2024.
The machinery for Kitex’s fibre-to apparel manufacturing cluster at Kakatiya has already been bought and the building of the 3 million sq. ft. facility is being pre-fabricated in West Asia and will be shipped and assembled. “It is for the first time that 100 per cent of a building – including all the electrical and plumbing fittings – is being imported,” he says, adding that the technology at the unit will be world class and the design unique.
He shared that the 210-acre Kitex campus at Kakatiya will be self-sustaining with accommodation and recreational facilities for 11,000 workers. It will also have marketplace, movie theatre, an artificial lake spread over six acres and a helipad.
Sabu also said that he had pledged an investment of Rs. 2,400 crore in Telangana, and is now pumping in an additional Rs. 600 crore.
As far as finance is concerned, while 30 per cent would be sourced from Kitex’s own funds, 70 per cent will be through loan from the market. In FY ‘22, the company had a record turnover of Rs. 1,450 crore.
