Kay Ventures has teamed up with Hydra Micro Business Solutions to convert Karur into a global knitwear center. Karur is a hub for quality made ups and home textiles in Tamil Nadu. Tirupur is another major cluster known for cotton knitwear. Though these towns are just 100 km apart, growth of Tirupur has been phenomenal. While Karur’s export turnover is Rs 4000 crores a year, Tirupur has breached the Rs 40,000 crore mark. One of the key factors behind this stark difference is the size of segments they cater to. The size of the clothing sector is many times more than the home textiles market.
However, this is set to change because knitwear made an unnoticed entry into Karur sometime in 2016. Hydra is an economic framework that makes it possible for multiple entities to collaborate, think and function like a single entity on a single platform.
The Kay Ventures knitwear cluster in Karur annually produces 7.50 million pieces of knitwear, predominantly for leading domestic brands and export. Efforts are under way to increase the capacity to 20 million pieces per annum to accommodate more orders in the near term. Kay aims at expanding its knitwear capacity to 10,000 machines in the next four years.
