AHMEDABAD:After quelling labour unrest that inflicted a loss of Rs 41 crore to the company,textiles company Arvind Ltd on Thursday commissioned a new manufacturing facility to manufacture glass fabrics in India.A JV formed with German company PD Fibre Glass Group,facility is situated at Santej,40 kms off city.
The JV formed in December 2011 has 51:49 equity paticipation and will cater to the requirements of energy,automotive and infrastructure sectors.The Ahmedabad-headquartered company aspires its technical textiles to be a$1 bn business in a decade,CMD Sanjay Lalbhai had said earlier.Arvind manufactures fabrics for fire retardants,filtration,personal protection since two-and-half-years.
Arvind suffered a major jolt in business in June after near 4000 workers from its two units called off work for the whole month to demand fair wages.After much deliberation,wages were hiked by Rs 1935.In its show-cause notices to its workers,the company has claimed the production loss amounted to Rs 41 crore.
The Satej's facility will entail an investment of Rs 80 crore and will manufacture 30,000 tonnes of fabric after five years.The JV is expected to give Rs 250 crore business in the first three years and eventually be a Rs 500 crore by the fifth year.
Majority of the production will be exported initially and as India gets bullish on green energy and creates wind energy farms,the production will be diverted to the domestic market.The marketsize of glass composite industry in India stands at Rs 500 crore.
