Homing in on Karur

Among all the major home textile clusters, Karur has a special place in terms of its contribution to the total exports of home textiles from India
reports Sudha Swaminathan

If retail chains and visitors throng the Indian pavilion at Heimtextil every year, it is to pick up treats from the scintillating collection of home textiles from Karur, displayed vividly in various hues and colours. The whopping 45 plus number of participants from Karur in the fair is a testimony to how this small cluster in Tamil Nadu is making waves across the globe in home textiles. It is one among the few textile clusters in India which has mastered the art of producing hand-woven home textiles, a tradition carried on meticulously by artisans for generations. Among all the major home textile clusters, Karur has a special place in terms of its contribution to the total exports of home textiles from India.

It is one among the four centres declared as ‘town of export excellence’ in home textiles by the government of India for infrastructure development. The others are Cannanore, Kekkra and Madurai. The town stands as a classic example of co-existence of handloom and powerloom industries, competing each other.

What started as a business to serve the domestic market decades back has now elevated this small town to a significant contributor to the national exchequer. Karur has notched up its export performance steadily to cross Rs 1300 crore during the last year. Exports of home textiles from Karur are poised to grow exponentially with the ushering in of the frontier free trade, facilitated by the end of MFA. Textile leaders from Karur expect exports to touch Rs 5000 crore by 2010.

Business Operation

The home textile cluster of Karur comprises SMEs, which either work as suppliers to buying houses or to big retailers in overseas markets. The industry is totally decentralised and unorganised. A 3-tier system works in export of home textiles from Karur - master weaver, fabric supplier and merchant exporters. There are more than 300 exporters in the region. While the number of exporters with a turnover of Rs 50 crore and upward would be less than 15, and that of Rs 25 crore would be 30-40, the rest would fall in the net of below Rs 10 crore. The product basket of Karur is distinct and huge. More than 400 different products are manufactured here in 100% cotton. USA, EU, East Asia, Australia are the major markets that Karur caters to.

Infrastructure

Karur is said to be the largest production centre in South India. There are about 18,000 handlooms in and around Karur engaged in export trade and about 34,000 looms under the co-operative fold for domestic market. Powerlooms have also come up in large numbers. There are about 30 power processing houses and 500 manual processing units that process 4.2 lakh kgs/day. There are about eight common effluent treatment plants covering more than 400 units.

Modernisation

Even as Karur has carved a niche in the manufacture of hand-woven home textiles, entrepreneurs have also realised the importance of deploying technology to scale up productivity and quality. “The charm for handlooms is lost in the overseas market except for a few products like place mats and orders of small quantities. In order to respond to the needs of the buyers in terms of quality, quantity and delivery, we need to bank on technology”, says Mr M Sivakkannan, chairman, Handloom Export Promotion Council.

While keeping the art of making hand-woven goods intact, exporters of this region are also enthused about investing in modern looms and finishing equipments. As the quota system stands abolished, the number of exporters taking to modernisation is expected to increase manifold. According to Textiles Committee sources in Karur, more than Rs 50 crore would have gone into the modernisation process. “The pace of modernisation has gained momentum in the last two years and we expect more investments to come up in this region by the next two years”, says Mr V Velmurugan, deputy director, Textiles Committee, Karur. Value addition like print and embroidery hasalso caught the fncy of exporters to stand out from competitors. Many leading exporters have in-house emboidery units. Some of the exporters have hired overseas designers to work on new designs and patterns. Many leading exporters have established in-house showrooms to display their collections.

While more than 45 exporters participate in international fairs like Heimtextil, more than 100 exporters from Karur visit the fair to gauge the trend. Similar to any other cluster, entrepreneurs of Karur also believe in vertical integration and the number of exporters taking this route is increasing. Hitherto, there are ten exporters who have fully integrated set-ups like processing, weaving and stitching. However most of the exporters prefer to outsource processing jobs in places like Erode. “Processing remains a bottleneck due to water problem and pollution control norms. The progress of Karur will be handicapped owing to inadequate processing houses. The growth of the processing units is not proportional to the growth of the industry here. The policy of the government regarding processing industries is also not clear. The government must rise to the occasion and try to create a platform for the industry to survive”, avers an exporter.

Heritage Value

With hand-woven home textile products popular among customers, Karur exporters can easily cash-in the heritage value. The Karur Textile Manufacturers Exporters Association is planning to do a branding exercise to promote the products of Karur. Hand-woven home textiles is a heritage product and should be allowed to be imported without duties in the importing countries, says Mr Sivakkannan, also the secretary of the above association.

Quality systems

The cluster is quality conscious as already 16 companies are certified with ISO 9000 and is under implementation in 12 units. Some six units have been certified with SA 8000 and five units with EMS 14001. Exporters’ concern about the safety and well-being of the workers is well reflected with five companies certified with OHSAS 18000.

Intervention of Textiles Committee

Textiles Committee is closely working with the industry to address issues like human resources development, quality, environment and social compliance, marketing, etc.

With the intervention of TC, a consortium has been formed - Texmass Innovative Consortium, Karur - with 20 members to source raw materials, packing materials, etc. They have also come together to start a weaving unit with 50 looms for manufacturing place mats and other narrow width fabrics. “Depending upon the success of this consortium, upscaling will be done to promote more consortiums”, said Mr Subbaiah, cluster development agent, TC. It has facilitated the Karur textile Manufacturers Exporters Association to partner with ZDH to promote a business centre.

Energy saving programmes have been initiated with the help of Netherland Management Co-operation Programme. Four processing and weaving units have been audited to assess the consumption pattern of energy. In order to improve the working skills of the labour in the manufacturing area, a training centre is also functioning, which has benefited 350 people.