IMPRESSIONS from a Cross-section

Our group turnover for FY16 has been around ₹100 crore. Our subsidiary in the pharmaceutical market has contributed ₹20 crore. Worsted suiting did a sales turnover of about ₹30 crore, while ₹50 crore have come in from our technical textile product felts, which is essentially used in the manufacturing of paper and fibre cement.

 

We have added many designs in some of our finer blends as part of promoting and enhancing the brand Dinesh as a quality manufacturer for worsted fabrics. Our presence in our wholesaler's and distributor's markets is mainly in courser fabrics which are poly-rich rather than wool-rich. So, we are pushing aggressively to supply and penetrate the wool-rich segment. We have designed fabrics that appeal to the younger generation. We have also gone for brighter colours such as light navy blue that are trending upwards in the industry. With regard to technology, we have designed products that are lightweight, yet they are wool-rich for finer finish and lustre. We have also designed fabrics that have high twist. We believe our broad range of fabrics will sell well in the Indian market this financial year. 

Our main raw material for all our products in the felts market is nylon. We buy high quality nylon staple fibres from suppliers in Europe. In India, the market for felts is around ₹120 crore. We cover around 45 per cent of the Indian market. We have also expanded aggressively in the export market. We have a good reputation in this market as we have been manufacturing felts for the past 50 years. To ensure sustainability, we have efficient European machinery that manufactures high end felts, while consuming lower electricity than our competitors do. We have a high capex in this department as our aim is to deliver the best quality possible in a sustainable way. Due to demonetisation, we are focusing on the summer and winter collections of this and next year. Our focus is on cities where the cash crush has had a minimal negative effect on demand. As we shift sales to third and second tier cities, we hope to see steady improvement in sales. 

We hope to grow by five per cent in FY17 and by 10-15 per cent in FY18 due to strong growth from technical textiles and a steady revival in commercial textile division. At Dinesh, we have been constantly investing in technology that helps us grow in a sustainable way. For the last ten years, we have successfully invested in multiple windmills that help us generate green electricity to run our machines.