Arvind Mills - History and Operations

History and Operations

Arvind Mills was established in 1931. It was founded by the three brothers Kasturbhai Lalbhai, Narottambhai Lalbhai and Chimanbhai Lalbhai one of the leading families of Ahmedabad.

• 1931 – Arvind Mills Ltd. is incorporated with share capital Rs.2525000 ($55000) in Ahmedabad. Products manufactured are dhoties, sarees, mulls, dorias, crepes, shirtings,bra. panties, coatings, printed lawns & voiles cambrics, twills gaberdine etc.
• 1987 – The Company took up a modernisation programme to triple the production of denim cloth and to produce double yarn fabrics for exports. The new product groups identified were the indigo dyed blue denim, high quality two-ply fabrics for exports, and special products such as butta sarees, full voils and dhoties.
• 1991 – Arvind reached 100 million meters of denim per year, becoming the fourth largest producer of denim in the world.
• 1992 – The Company increased the production of denim cloth by 23,000 tonnes per day by modernising the plant located at Khatraj of Ankur Textiles.
• 1993 – The Company proposed to expand the denim manufacturing capacity by 85,00,00 metres per annum. The Company also proposed to set up a new composite mill for producing annually 120 lakh metres of high quality shirting fabrics to be marketed in the domestic as well as international markets.
• 1994 – The Company's operations were divided into 3 units viz., Textile Division, telecom division and garments division.
• 1995 – The performance of textile division was significantly affected due to an unprecedented rise in cost of cotton.
  • Garment division launched ready to stitch jeans pack under the brand `Ruf & Tuf`.
• 1997 – The marketing and distribution network of `Newport` brand was strengthened and the relaunched `Flying Machine' and 'Ruggers` brand were strengthened.
  • The Company reported a fire in the goods godown & folding packing department in Naroda Road unit of the company.
  • Arvind Mills sets up the anti-piracy cell for the first time in India to curb large scale counterfeiting of their highly successful brands Ruf & Tuf and Newport jeans.
  • Arvind Mills adopts the franchisee system for the manufacture and distribution of Ruf and Tuf jeans.
  • Arvind Fashions, doubles its capacity in the state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Bangalore to produce Lee jeans.
  • 1997 was also the year when arvind mills started facing serious troubles financially
• 1998 – Arvind Mills emerges as the world's third largest manufacturer of denim.
  • Arvind Mills goes live with SAP R/3 ERP package in April 1998 in their new manufacturing units.
• 1999 – Arvind Mills sets a two-month deadline for hiving off its garments division into a separate company and sale of its real estate in Delhi.
• 2000 – CRISIL downgrades the debenture issues of Arvind, indicating that the instruments were in default.
• 2001 – Arvind Mills defaults on a $125 million floating rate note issue and puts forward a debt restructuring proposal that could significantly reduce its debt burden and sharply improve its financial health.
  • Arvind Mills posts a net loss of Rs 44.59 crore for the quarter ended September 30, 2001.
• 2003 – For the fourth quarter, Arvind Mills witnesses 280% growth in the net profit
  • Arvind Mills Ltd is assigned a `P1+` rating by CRISIL, which indicates a very strong rating for their commercial paper.
• 2004 – Company turns itself around showing remarkable improvement in financial performance.
• 2005 – For the fourth quarter in a row, Arvind Mills has managed to post a profit growth in excess of 80 per cent.
  • Arvind Mills decides to buy entire stake in Arvind Brands from ICICI Ventures.

• • Arvind Mills does not distribute dividends to its share holders consistently.