“I think that things are pretty normal and GST is a reverse trend which will eventually come to us. The working capital definitely is a big issue. We have already diversified our business as we are running schools and also a software development firm. We gauged the situation few years back and started working on diversification. The competition and squeezing of margins has already damaged the business badly and as a result we are not focusing on garment sector anymore.”
Ashwin Krishnamurthy, V4 GARMENTS, Coimbatore
“We had got into garment exports around three years back but due to the market situation we have closed our factory.”
Thirupathy, Veera Apparels, Tirupur
“This is a very difficult situation as things are really going out of control. We are also identifying new ways to get out of this situation. The government is also not doing much to tackle the current crisis. Buyers have become extremely demanding as they have many options to source from. Also, the raw material prices are increasing because of increased exports to Bangladesh and China. This in turn has increased the cost of raw material in our country. There are few orders but then the margins, profitability and growth is almost negligible.”
Rajeev Bansal, Celestial Knits, Noida
“It is very unfortunate that the industry which is one of the biggest employment providers is not getting the support and attention it deserves. We are employing more than 2000 workers and the Government does not understand that once the buyer moves out of the country it becomes very difficult to bring them back and thus our entire business is at stake. The biggest disappointment is that the imports have got cheaper and which is why garments from Bangladesh and China are coming to India whereas exports are declining. Our main business comes from traditional markets like the US and EU and the emerging markets which Government wants us to work on cannot give us the same business and volumes.”
Roshan Baid, Paragon Apparels, Noida
“Exporters are crippling, but they have got what they have sown over the years by not working on efficiencies, lean manufacturing, profitability, technology up-gradation, following the global standards for manufacturing, understanding the market dynamics and what not. It is the time to rebuild the complete structure of apparel industry and even though there are loopholes on the Government’s part there is lot of discrepancies in what the industry should have done. In India, the manufacturers are in blind race where they do not know what should be the next step, how should they tackle the situation now and they are clueless on how to move ahead now. Chickens have finally come home to roost.”
Nimish Dave, Idea Smith, Gurgaon
“Whatever be the circumstances we are optimistic about the future as the exports cannot further decline from here. The buyer also cannot move sourcing completely out of India as they are also dependent on India for certain products and they have to maintain a balance. We have gone for expansions by becoming a backward integrated company with new knitting and dyeing plant which incurred investment of Rs 80 cr. We have to keep faith in business. For us 2018 is the year for building infrastructure, 2019 will be the year of consolidation and 2020-21 we will be a good year to work.”
Anil Buchasia, Amrit Exports, Kolkata
