Integrated textiles company Nahar Industrial Enterprises Ltd (NIEL) plans to have 500 Cotton County stores across the country in the current fiscal. NIEL Vice Chairman and Managing Director Kamal Oswal said the company has identified retail as the prime engine for growth.
NIEL’s flagship fashion brand Cotton County has over 278 stores spanning the northern, western and eastern regions of the country. “Our retail business in the ready-to-wear segment, through our wholly owned subsidiary Nahar Retail, witnessed good growth during the year, and we are confident of sustaining our expansion plans in the coming fiscal too,” Oswal informed.
As part of the company’s expansion plans, production has commenced at process unit II in Punjab with a daily capacity of 50,000 metres. Following the commissioning of this phase, the total process facilities of fabrics has increased to 165,000 metres per day, with the yarn-dyeing capacity growing to 11 tonnes per day.
The company posted a 35 per cent dip in net profit for the quarter ended March 2007, to Rs 21.35 crore from Rs 32.88 crore in the previous year. NIEL’s standalone net profit for 2006-07 also saw a 15 per cent decline to Rs 67.86 crore, from Rs 80.47 crore in the previous fiscal.
“The company is immensely hopeful that enhanced capacities and lower cost of power generation will add to the profitability of the company,” Oswal said. Sales for the company in the January-March period of 2006-07 stood at Rs 211.33 crore, up 17 per cent from the Rs 180.43 crore registered in the corresponding period last fiscal.
The board of directors of the company has recommended a 10 per cent dividend for 2006-2007.
– Bangalore Bureau
