After IT, now apparel looks beyond city

Gokaldas eyes Chennai, Hyderabad for unit Add to Clippings
The Economic Times

BANGALORE: The country’s largest apparel exporter Gokaldas Exports is expanding its footprint. Its proposed initial public offering (IPO), which would raise around Rs 100-150 crore, will be used to set up four new factories — one of which will come up in Hyderabad or Chennai.

The fourth factory which is expected to become operational in FY 2006-07 would be a massive one, spread over an estimated 2.1 lakh square feet. The three other units would add 2.9 lakh square feet by October.

The decision to enter Hyderabad/Chennai is a bold one given that the company’s 43 facilities are all based in Bangalore.

The Garden City currently accounts for about 4-5% of the country’s apparel exports and has been one of the hot-spots in south India, besides Chennai and Tirupur.

Gokaldas’s move to set up a unit outside Bangalore mimics the turn of events in the IT/software industry in the country’s silicon capital.

While Wipro has set up base in Kolkata, others like Infosys have been eyeing places like Thiruvananthapuram.