By Arun Rao
Sivaraj Spinning Mills is a member of SSM Group started with a very small spinning mill begun in 1985 and currently has an impressive 700,000 spindles. The SSM Group has 15 manufacturing units spread across Tamil Nadu, as well as diversified interests in steel fabrication, wind farming and education.
Manufacturing Capabilities and Infrastructure
Dindigul headquartered Sivaraj Spinning Mills has around 200,000 spindles, 8,000 rotors, 450 airjet looms, 50 knitting machines and around 1,000 stitching machines. Sivaraj Spinning also has a garment and innerwear brand named Chennis and currently manages 30 Chennis exclusive brand stores (EBO’s), while the total employee strength is around 10,000.
For the spinning unit, the mill has purchased various and latest technologies and ancillaries from renowned manufacturers like LMW, Truetzschler, Rieter, Elgi, VXL, Vetal and Uster. The advanced airjet looms have been purchased from Tsudokama, knitting machines from Pailung and it has installed a state of the art soft flow dyeing machine from Thies. The garmenting plant is equipped with technologies from Juki, Pegasus and Yamato.
Yarn & Fabric Production & Product Range
“We manufacture almost 2,400 tons of open end yarn per month and 3,500 tons per month of ring spun yarn. In open end spinning, we manufacture counts beginning from 2’s to 20’s count and in ring spinning we supply 16’s to 44’s counts.The ring spun yarns are all meant for knitting fabrics,” Mr Subrata Pal, CEO – Apparel & Brand at Sivaraj Spinning Mills said while speaking with The Textile Magazine.
For their weaving production plant, Sivaraj Spinning Millspurchases yarns from other mills and manufactures both smaller and wider width fabrics, which are widely used in suitings, shirtings, home textiles, etc. The gray fabrics are either dyed or printed on a contract basis in a fabric process house in Tiruppur, while the yarn for its knitting unit is supplied from their own spinning mill.
Garmenting Operations and Chennis Brand
“In garmenting, we have two plants which manufacture only knitted apparels. One is for undergarments and other for apparels. The combined capacity is around 700,000 pieces per month. In apparels, we supply for all age groups from babies to adults and both menswear and womenswear like t-shirts, track pants, shorts, vest, briefs and intimate wear. However, the Chennis brand stores stock both knitted and woven garments. In trousers, we stock linen trousers which are blended with other fibres,” Mr Pal added.
Product Development and Innovation
According to Mr Pal, the company has a very active product development team which strives to experiment and launch new blends every season whether yarns or fabrics. “In the current competitive and challenging environment, the team has regularly developed innovative yarns and fabrics, which have been instant success in the markets. We dedicate our impressive growth to our R&D team,” he stated.
Expansion into Home Textiles
Sivaraj Mills started with yarn and then forward integrated into fabrics and then in to garments. The company will now add home textiles as a new product category and will begin by launching bedsheets, comforters, pillows, etc. Going forward, other home textile products like towels, bath mats, etc will also be introduced.
The fabric will be manufactured in-house, while dyeing and printing will be done in the same unit where the fabrics are currently being dyed or printed. The stitching will be done in-house and these home textile products will be sold in the company EBO’s and in the domestic market and also has plans to export these home textiles.
Mr Pal further said, “When we launch our home textiles, we will have to double our stitching capacity and might also add an additional shift in our garmenting plant. The product development and designing is currently ongoing and we may launch the home textile products in the next 2-3 months.”
Sustainability and Green Initiatives
In green initiatives, the SSM Group has taken initiative of building windmills since 2005 and now has more than 400 wind turbines which have a combined capacity of 300 MW. Around 90% of electricity requirements for all the SSM Group production plants are generated from these windmills.
CSR and Community Development
The SSM group manages a charitable trust under the name of S. Chennimalai Gounder Charitable Trust, which does several corporate social responsibilities (CSR) initiatives in Dindigul. Since Dindigul is prone to drought, the Group is not using underground water, but has created numerous rain water harvesting structures within their production plants.
Tree plantation has also been undertaken to increase the green cover. The trust also manages schools and colleges which provides education to the children of its workforce as well as to students from Dindigul. The trust also undertakes free food distribution for poor people of the area.
Industry Outlook and Policy Recommendations
“The China+1 policy has resulted in production shifting to India. But the Indian textile and garment industry lacks the scale and size to meet the demand. The government will have to create infrastructure and improve the ease of doing business further. The garment industry is people driven and making them skilled is a long term process. Although we are also running a small skill development centre, but even this is not enough for us. The government should set up skill development institutes where workers can be skilled,” he signed off by saying.
