Till now it was more of forward integration in the Indian Denim Industry with the Denim fabric players foraying into manufacture and export of Denim Apparel.
Now its the turn of Apparel exporters to look into backward integration and the Apparel Major – Gokaldas Images(which has strong prescence in the Denim apparel exports) – plans to bringup their own Denim manufacturing unit within the next fiscal year.
The move makes sense in the fact that they will have captive consumption inhouse for the fabric. But it needs to be remembered that it will take them some time before they can match the standards of the fabrics supplied by their current suppliers (many of which are nominated by the buyers) . However, it is not that this kind of backward integration is uncommon. Apparel exporters have done it before in countries like Bangladesh,Turkey etc.
Anyway, we wish them all the best ..
Sandeep
