India’s textile growth story, in recent months, has been quite upbeat. The growth is reflected across the textile supply chain with many companies going for planned expansion. If expansion is talked about, a few companies in the Indian trims manufacturing industry are also gearing up to establish new units with state-of-the-art infrastructure, larger product basket, sustainable practices as well as international operations…
Delhi-based Manohar Filaments offers almost all major trim categories except metal trims like woven, printed and heat transfer labels, tapes, draw-chords, embroidery/silicon patches/badges elastics, hang-tags, packaging solutions (rigid/corrugated boxes, mono-cartons), etc. The 36-year-old company recently started a new factory in Chennai, expanded in Bangladesh, started a new project Keeo Life and much more. Amit Jain, the Visionary Director of the company believes that the only certainty in today’s market is uncertainty, shares his strategy and plan for continuous growth with Apparel Resources (AR).
AR: India’s apparel export is growing and, at the same time, the domestic market is also doing well. Has this benefited your business too?
Amit Jain: We are on the growth path and seeing it in numbers. As you correctly pointed out, both international and domestic markets are swelling with subdued optimism in these turbulent times. As demand increases, we are seeing challenges of price rise across regions and these inflationary trends might affect business down the line. As far as numbers go, we expect to keep growing in double digits across our locations and product lines, but at the same time, we are building our digital tools, streamlining our operations, building strategic stock levels, keenly focusing on resiliency as a key strategy to ensure market disruptions don’t hit us as bad as they did at the beginning of the pandemic.
AR: Just three months back, you started a unit in Chennai which was your dream for a long time. What was the reason to choose Chennai specifically?
Amit Jain: Our Chennai unit is currently focused on producing state-of-the-art packaging solutions and delivers almost all types of packaging boxes, PDQs and paper products. The unit is capable of delivering 20 to 30 million-plus units of high-quality products across various product lines per month, which also indicates its size and machinery infrastructure. Strategically, this plant gives us the distinct advantage of delivering much faster at a lower cost to our esteemed clients located in southern India. As export timelines reduced, we as partners deemed it necessary to be where our clients are and offer the now chronicled ‘Manohar Quality and Delivery’ to them.
In India, we also have a production facility in Haryana and offices in Delhi, Bengaluru and Tirupur. Our unique selling point is our in-house dyeing facility where all requirements of dyed yarn are met through the vertically integrated machinery. All products can be offered with added value too, such as high deposition printing, a combination of processes such as weaving, embroidery and/or printing, and all possible options of finishing and quality. Our infrastructure is carefully constructed to support this wide range of products…
AR: You have presence in multiple countries and amongst them, Bangladesh is doing good. What are your plans for the future?
Amit Jain: Our Bangladesh plant has been a true wonder for us as a group. We are blessed to have an amazing team on the ground there and our numbers just keep getting better and better for the region. Our recent addition of packaging capabilities has been well received by our global customers and we are planning further capacity additions in the months to come. As far as other countries are concerned, well it’s a tough one. We have had always plans to expand and probably will be going to Vietnam next. Vietnam is most definitely the next but it will be followed by where we will let the business decide, but it would either be in South East Asia/Africa or even in EU, depending on sourcing patterns and geopolitical situations.
We already have strategic partners across the world and you never know, depending on the market, next 4-5 years may see a couple of new ventures across the globe, even in US and Europe. Considering the nearshoring trend in fast fashion, all I know is never say never, when it comes to operational expansion!
The future plans depend on many factors as you are well aware; however, we do plan to foray into Vietnam, and from capacity and capability perspective, we are investing in narrow fabrics and packaging both in India and Bangladesh. Regarding new products, we are focused on elastics and paper packaging.
AR: During Covid, companies were struggling to survive but you excelled and came out with your latest initiative Keeo Life. How it is doing?
Amit Jain: Keeo Life is my pet project. I had always wanted to invest in something which could fight COVID-19 and I came up with the idea of our flagship product, which is a certified product that kills the COVID-19 virus, and it all happens, thanks to the patented product design and natural coatings on the mask. As a brand, we have high hope from Keeo-Life. We plan to bring in similar innovative products to market and create a sort of wellness and lifestyle brand which produces high-quality products for the general public. Our masks are doing well in the market and soon you will see an array of new products roll out under the brand umbrella, so, stay tuned!
AR: Besides being sustainable, offering innovative and quality products, you have an eye on every aspect, be it the presentation of the product or adding value to customers.
Amit Jain: At Manohar Filaments, we are always up for a challenge when it comes to developing new products in world-class qualities. Our development team is one of the best in the world and our top leaders are personally involved in ensuring the products developed are perfect in every sense, right from sourcing of the raw materials, to setting up of the process to finally delivering the developed product consistently in bulk production. I am blessed to have this dedicated team that doesn’t miss a beat when it comes to product development.
AR: Your company is one of the few suppliers around the world specialising in performance and activewear trims, which can withstand the wear and tear, yet retain their functionality. What makes you special in this segment?
Amit Jain: For high-performance products, we specialise in sourcing the right material and setting up the right production process which enhances the functional ability of said products. Without getting too technical, let’s just say, we have invested a great deal in the R&D of products fit for athleisure and activewear segments and the results speak for themselves. We are perhaps the only manufacturer outside China delivering the quality which is deemed acceptable by brands of global repute for their athleisure products.
AR: What are your efforts for marketing and how do you support your customers, especially in this uncertain scenario?
Amit Jain: Customer support is always our top priority and we take care of it the most like high price of yarn affects us just as much as any other player in the market. What we have been able to do are two things – educate our partners on the way the market is moving and share costs, while working on building strategic stocks, so that the price rise isn’t a shock for our clients in terms of our product prices, rather a seamless transition from one price range to another, justified by market movements.
We are seeing China+1 strategy being employed by many customers and have been gearing up to support them as needed.
We use social media very effectively and our social media presence is something our team at senior management level is deeply involved in and every information given about our presence is 100 per cent genuine and a true depiction of the spirit of Manohar Filaments. In our posts, we focus on the high-quality products we have to offer, share news about our capabilities, our social and employee-related programmes from welfare to management initiatives, and since our stories are close to our hearts, the response we get from our customers and partners is often overwhelming, both in appreciation and in support.
Bharat Tex Special Report 2026 
