In a strategic move from cotton textiles to technical textiles, the Ahmedabad-based denim maker Arvind Ltd has entered into equity partnership with Japanese major OG Corporation to set up a greenfield manufacturing facility at Dholka, about 70 km from Ahmedabad.
The 74:26 joint venture between Arvind and OG Corporation, Arvind OG Nonwovens Pvt Ltd (AOG), will manufacture high quality non-woven fabrics using needle-punch technology for bag house filtration, artificial leather and a variety of other applications at the newly built facility at Dholka.
The company has already acquired 300 acres, which is partly being used for the technical textiles vertical. The company plans to utilise the remaining land as per the expansion requirements in other business verticals.
"The initial investment by the joint venture is about Rs 50 crore. We will achieve Rs 100 crore topline by the next couple of years. Our target is to achieve a turnover of Rs 1,000 crore by 2017-18," Punit Lalbhai, Executive Director, Arvind Ltd, said at the inauguration of the plant here.
The joint venture also has technology alliance with Kureha Ltd of Japan.
It has imported custom-built machines from Japan specifically designed to achieve Japanese quality standards and capable of handling various fibres such as M-Aramid, Homopolymer Acrylic, Poly-phenelyene Sulfone (PPS), Polyimide Polypropylene and Polyester.
"Out of the total raw material that we will use, over 50 per cent will be imported. While we are planning to export about 60 per cent of our total production," he said.
The unit started production this month with a single production line of needle-punching technology.
"Beyond this, we are also looking to invest in other technologies and product categories in the non-wovens space going forward," Lalbhai said.
H. Machino, Managing Director of OG Corporation India, and Director of India joint venture, further added: “Keeping the future in mind, India is a very important marketplace for OG Corporation. We are therefore delighted to partner with Arvind and establish a non-woven fabrics manufacturing facility in India.”
The OG Corporation is a $1.1-billion company engaged in specialised materials manufacturing and trading. Besides a joint venture with Arvind, OG Corporation has invested about $10 million for a joint venture with Metropolitan Chemicals for a speciality chemicals making facility near Mumbai.