The Hindu Business Line : Bright scope seen for socks export

THE availability of abundance of raw material and the technical skill in the operation of hi-tech machines will make India a major outsourcing hub for socks as developed countries look for cost effective sources of supply, according to Mr V. Elangovan, Managing Director, S.N.Q.S. International Socks Private Ltd, Coimbatore.

Speaking to newspersons on the occasion of the commissioning of the expanded manufacturing facility of his 100 per cent export-oriented unit on Wednesday, he said with the opening of the economy post 2005, the world leaders in different sectors will be looking at India to be the outsourcing hub for different products and socks will be no exception.

He said the original investment in the project was about Rs 7.5 crore to produce knitted socks. The unit had installed capacity to produce 44,000 dozen pairs per month and the average monthly production last year was 30,000 dozen pairs.

With the increase in demand for socks, the company had gone for additional capacity by using machines imported from Italy at an investment of Rs 5 crore. The capacity increase would take the monthly production to 55,000 dozen pairs, making his company the largest socks manufacturing unit catering to the export market in the country.

Mr Elangovan said presently the socks manufactured by his company were exported to England, Germany, France, Ireland, Sweden, Norway, Italy and Poland. Since many of the buyers of textile products from Europe came to Tirupur for sourcing, where he had a garment unit, he was able to access the European markets for his socks production as well.

He said he was also looking at the US market for socks but would wait for a strategic partner since the US market was very huge.

Explaining the reasons for going for capacity expansion at a time when the existing capacity utilisation was less than the installed capacity, Mr V. Sathish Kumar, CEO, said the additional capacity would pave the way for better product mix leading to higher realisations.

The company was also looking at marketing the socks in the South Indian market in the near future in its own brand name. He expected the domestic market to contribute around 5-10 per cent of the total turnover. In the current fiscal, the company expected a turnover of Rs 14 crore. The foreign exchange earned last year was $1.50 million and this was expected to go up to $3 million in the current year.

Ms Paola Sangiacomo, Director, Sangiacomo SpA, Italy and Mr Livio Rodari, Area Manager of the company, which had supplied the socks manufacturing machinery to the Coimbatore unit, expected India to play a significant role in the world socks market.

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