About 400 km from Mumbai, the tier-two textile city, Solapur, in South-East Maharashtra is eying becoming the country’s uniform sourcing hub with over 1,200 manufacturing units across the city. The city used to be an important centre for cotton textile manufacturing until recently and was the first to set up a waste-to-energy electricity plant in Maharashtra. “We plan to have about 2,000 garment units in the textile city to become the world’s uniform sourcing hub by 2022,” said Darshan Kochar, Coordinator, Solapur Garment Manufacturers Association.
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The uniform hub accommodates a humongous production and aims towards making Maharashtra and Solapur the world’s best uniform sourcing hub. The city has a production rate of over 50,000 uniforms per day and these include uniforms for schools, hospitals, hospitality ventures and more. The number is increasing as the boundaries are expanding. With rapidly growing production units and outputs, Solapur is swiftly moving towards becoming the world’s primary uniform sourcing hub.
Uniforms are one of the top requirements in schools, colleges, corporate firms, hospitality ventures, restaurants, hospitals and other institutes. The market size of the uniform manufacturing sector in India is estimated to be Rs 18,000 crore per annum, with Rs 10,000 crore coming from machinery and fabrics while Rs 8,000 crore come from sales supplying to local schools through retailers and institutions. With over 40 years of legacy in the uniform Industry, the sector has more than 10,000 happy clients all over the world.
Kochar also shared that there is a huge demand for Solapur school uniforms, kids’ garments, men’s wear and ladies’ wear owing to their quality, durability, colour and texture. The association had also set up a centre in 2017 to train hundreds of women in stitching uniforms at Solapur and provide jobs for them in the cluster units.
According to top officials, reputed garment manufacturers have evinced keen interest in investing Rs 700 to 800 crore in setting up units in Solapur District. “Mafatlal Industries has set up a garment manufacturing unit at Solapur to hire the trained women in hundreds for stitching uniforms,” said Kochar. After Mafatlal Industries started a 200-machine factory to make ready-made uniforms, Reliance Group, Raymond and Mumbai-based Rupam Exports and Amber Home are in line to enter the district next.
Good connectivity through rail, road and airports in Mumbai, Pune and Hyderabad has also helped Solapur to emerge as an investment destination in the state for the uniform garment industry in the country. The cluster has the capability to stitch thousands of uniforms for the armed forces, police personnel in central and states, security agencies and private and state-run factories in the country. “Many overseas buyers from the Middle East and Africa (MEA) and South East Asia have shown interest in their uniforms,” added Kochar.
The uniform hub accommodates a humongous production and aims towards making Maharashtra and Solapur the world’s best uniform sourcing hub. The city has a production rate of over 50,000 uniforms per day and these include uniforms for schools, hospitals, hospitality ventures and more. The number is increasing as the boundaries are expanding. With rapidly growing production units and outputs, Solapur is swiftly moving towards becoming the world’s primary uniform sourcing hub.
“We have about 300 members in our associations, who are manufacturers of small or large scale. Due to the ample availability of workers Solapur has good opportunity to grow. Previously manufacturers used single-kata or double-kata machines they are now shifting to machines from Juki, Jack with latest motor and technology,” informed Kochar.
He also mentioned that to ensure good and consistent business the cluster is regularly maintain a very friendly environment for labourers that in turn can be seen as our strength. Also all the units have their own R&D department and proper standard patterns with in-house facilities. Uniforms are made in a specific pattern and all the patterns are made class-wise to maintain a standard size.
“We are attached to the big mills and Mumbai being close by it becomes another added advantage. We are linked with good fabric manufacturers so we get the best quality fabric. Govt. support is also there so we organise exhibition also to promote industry,” he said. “There are two factors that should be kept in mind while making uniforms; one is quality and second is service. Schools have a scheduled time to provide uniforms and since it for school kids the quality standards have to be very high,” suggested Kochar.
The cluster is inviting people to come to Solapur for setting uniform units as it has a lot of potential which can be explored for growth in the future.
