China fabric maker Luthai sews up larger India play.

BANGALORE: Chinese fabric major Luthai Textile, one of the biggest suppliers of fabric to Indian garment makers, plans to enter the organized retail market here, for which it has lined up production innovations that take on the likes of Raymond, Arvind and Madura Fashion and Lifestyle.

The $1-billion high-grade yarn and dyed fabric manufacturer, which counts Burberry, Zara, Uniqlo, Wills Lifestyle, Arrow, and Van Heusen as clients, has developed, among other things, an India specific fabric to overcome tobacco stains.

For the paan-masala chewing Indian consumers, who struggle to remove stains off their clothes, Luthai has developed a fabric that enables you to get rid of the stain in just one wash even without the use of soap.

Recently, Arrow had launched a luxury shirt collection, Superluxe-The Stitchless Shirt, the innovator of which was Luthai Textiles. While the traditional method is to sew together pieces of fabric to make a shirt, Luthai uses eco-friendly adhesive material to make their shirts.

The technology is said to eliminate the problem of creases and puckering on the seams of shoulders, sides, and collar of shirts, something that the Indian man is becoming increasingly conscious about.

The listed Chinese company is the owner of over 600 patented innovations in the textile industry globally.

Luthai, which primarily caters to the menswear market, exports 800,000 meters of fabric to India every month accounting for 5% of the company's overall revenues.

The company has been operating in India for close to eight years and has a distribution tie-up with Bangalore-headquartered R K Group. "In the next 12 months we expect our India exports to touch 2 million meters of fabric a month," said Leo W, vice director (international marketing) at Luthai Textile. He said the company's biggest export markets were the US, contributing 30% to the overall business, followed by Europe at 25% and Japan at 20%.

"We expect India's share of our business to touch 15% and become the fourth biggest market in the next two years," added Leo.

By the second half of the next calendar year, Luthai plans to enter the retail space with fabrics, a segment that accounts for over 50% of sales in the menswear market, particularly in the shirts category. Industry estimates that the medium to high-end menswear market sees 5 million meters of sales per month, half of that as fabric sales.

Luthai is also exploring the ready-towear menswear market, but does not intend to set up a manufacturing unit in India. The company is in discussions to partner with its current distributor R K Group for the planned India ramp up.

Source : timesofindia.indiatimes.com