Tamil Nadu Textile industry led by Young generations

GR Gopikumar, 30, has recently been appointed whole-time director at the Coimbatore-based Chandra Textiles founded by his grandfather GR
Govindarajulu in 1910.

Gopikumar is not the only one of his generation to take charge at Tamil Nadu’s age-old textile firms, which is increasingly being integrated into the global market.

V Mani Narayanan, 31, the son of Texprocil chairman, VS Velayutham, has recently become the executive director of Tirunelveli-based Sri Gomathy Mills, which is over five decades old.

In most cases, the next generation was handed the business on a platter, with their predecessors having worked hard to build them from scratch and helping the companies find a niche in the global retail space.

Armed with degrees from universities abroad, the scions of these textile groups are taking control at a time when demand from the domestic market has grown and Indian companies are outsourcing their products.

With their knowledge base and capacity for risk, the younger generation is breaking some of the time-tested rules of doing business. CR Ananda Krishnan, who started at the KPR Mills processing plant at Perundurai, for instance, was instrumental in raising funds through an initial public offer.

The 33-year old executive director had to convince his family members, including his father KP Ramasamy, for the fund-raising exercise. “It is natural for my father to wonder, ‘why dilute promoter holding?’ But we took a collective decision. My father and his two brothers agreed,” says Krishnan.

The new generation hasn’t broken with tradition either, and is doing a fine balance. D Kothai, director of the Aruppukotai-based Ramalinga Spinners, says she’s inherited a caring attitude from his father, who did not opt for a VRS when the spinning industry was at its lowest ebb in the 1990s. “He ran the company not to make money but to help society. I follow his principles,” he says.

The scions of the textile groups have a heritage to nurture, after all.

Inspired by the success of Madura Coats and Binny Mills started by John Binny in 1876, a slew of dynamic entrepreneurs created mills in the early 1900s. Coimbatore, Madurai, Dindigul and Tirupur became the hub of Tamil Nadu’s textile business.

Lakshmi Mills in Coimbatore was the first to come up in 1910 followed by Chandra Textiles, Gomathy Mills, GVG Textiles and KPR Mills. Tamil Nadu alone has 47% of total spinning capacity in the country and the state accounts for more than 40% of yarn exports from India.

Many next generation women are also getting actively involved in the modernisation of ancestral businesses. K Malathy, 32, and Vaishnavi Naren, 32, have become executive directors of Somanur-based Sri Karunambikai Mills and Udumalpet-based GVG Group of companies. Vaishnavi Naren played a key role in the modernisation of the textile division by implementing ERP and ensuring net connectivity. “It helped us conserve energy in a better way,” she says.

Though the founders of textile mills weathered textile industry’s business cycles and built robust business models, younger members may not stop with building and consolidating their family business.

They are on the look out for possible diversification to sectors like engineering and hospitality. With India’s economy growing at a better pace than other countries and Tamil Nadu’s business climate undergoing positive changes, they have good reason to do so.