Silver Spark Apparel Ethiopia PLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Raymond Group, is among the host of investors who have set up their facilities at the Hawassa Industrial Park.
By Suresh P. Iyengar (Business Line)
The 92-year-old Raymond Group has hogged the limelight for all the wrong reasons, belittling the big strides it has made on the business front. Despite controversy over the JK House sale to promoters, it was business as usual for the seasoned business man Gautam Hari Singhania, Chairman and Managing Director of Raymond Group who fielded questions at ease. Excerpts:
What favored Ethiopia over India for your fresh investment in new plant?
Ethiopia makes a compelling business case for us to serve global customers faster at a competitive price. It mitigates export risk and catapult Raymond among top five leading suit makers in the world. Having said that, we are committed to ‘Make in India’ and been manufacturing here since 1925. Our greenfield project at Amravati is a testimony to this. We have four modern suiting and shirting plants in Vapi, Chhindwara, Jalgaon and Kolhapur. Raymond forayed into B2B garmenting space in 2003 and has four modern garmenting plants in Bengaluru. As a white label-integrated supplier to leading international brands, we make garments for export to the US, Europe and Japan. We are the largest garment makers in India with annual capacity of 2.2 million jackets and 2.4 million pieces each of trousers and shirts.
Are you concerned over geopolitical tension in Ethiopia?
The democratic government of Ethiopia has largely been stable for the last two decades. Ethiopia is among the most politically stable countries in the world. There have been some recent issues which have been resolved well by the government. Of late, several international companies have invested in Ethiopia and the political will of the country ensures stability and provides the required support to carry on business operations smoothly.
What are the sops Ethiopia offered you?
Silver Spark Apparel Ethiopia PLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Raymond Group, is among the host of investors who have set up their facilities at the Hawassa Industrial Park, which would become an international hub. The Ethiopian government offers manpower at a competitive rate and highly subsidized power.
The ready-made industrial sheds at the Park reduced capital expenditure substantially. Ethiopia has duty-free access to the US and European markets. Our facility will be the single largest suit manufacturing garment in the world with over 1.4 million jackets per year.
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See also:
- Hawassa Industrial Park Goes Fully Operational
- Ethiopia to Inaugurate Two Chinese-built Industrial Parks
- VIDEO: Private Equities Showing Interest in Ethiopia’s Growing Economy
- A Delegation of 70 Companies from Shenzhen City of China Visits Ethiopia
- VIDEO: Ethiopia Offers the Perspective of a Huge Consumer Base, Unibra S.A. COO Thomas Hochreiter