The 5th edition of Resilient Tirupur, held on February 8, 2020, brought together all stakeholders of the apparel industry who renewed their commitment to achieving business growth and wellbeing of millions of people associated with this industry. The event was attended by over 1,000 participants including factory owners, supply chain partners, senior professionals and students from textile/fashion institutes.
Surinder Jain, Business Director of Wazir Advisors emphasised on the need to increase India’s share of exports to the US and EU. He said, Chinese exporters have an advantage over India due to lower interest costs, lower overheads due to economies of scale and high efficiencies. He spoke of a Virtual Integration model practised by Chinese groups. He cited the example of GTT group where a core group of companies does all customer facing functions like marketing, merchandising, design - product development and approvals whereas the order execution functions like fabric trims and garment production are conducted by other factories located nearby and profits get shared by the entire group. The group has a $4 billion turnover. Due to these reasons, China is competitive in spite of higher labour cost compared to India.
Raja Shanmugham, President, Tirupur Exporters Association, explained how business in Tirupur has grown three fold in last six years with the hard work of entrepreneurs and stakeholders. He expressed delight over the positive business developments in Tirupur. Though workers in Tirupur are superior, the overall control of raw material sourcing and coordination between the supply chain partners in Tirupur is low. In Bangladesh, leading factories ensure that all inputs are in the factory before starting production and this helps in achieving high productivity.
The event was organised by Tirupur Exporters Association and NIFT TEA Institute in association with Sripuram Trust and TTPK and sponsored by Reliance and Birla Cellulose.
