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ABSTRACT
In today’s competitive scenario where more and more players are coming into the picture, there is a need to look into the customer or client behavior to know your client well. And also there is a need to spread their business like this in which one can choose the best for them. Till now here in India most of people prefer unbranded clothing and they but clothing from traditional apparel stores but after entrance of big giants in this segment, today’s emerging retailing environment, people’s income level and spending power. Increasing preference for fashion & new trends; hence there is a wide scope in India for apparel industry and till now it is at the flourish stage.
The research project “Performance and prospects of Cotton County Apparels in LUDHIANA” was undertaken with the objective to know about promotional strategies, price, identify products of other garment companies and all these objectives helpful for Cotton County in launching of new products, determining the price of its various products keeping in the mind of other garment companies.
INTRODUCTION
The history of development in world textile industry was started in Britain as the spinning and weaving machines were invented in that country. Though the industry was started in UK, still in 19th century the textile production passed to Europe & North America after mechanization process in those areas. From time to time Japan, China & India took part in industrializing their economies & concentrated more in that sector.
According to statistics, the global textile market possesses a worth of more than $400 billion presently. It is predicted that Global textile production will grow by 25 percent between 2002 and 2010 and Asian region will largely contribute in this regard. In India, the production of cotton is at very large scale & become leading producer due to cheap labor supply, which is an important factor for the industry.
ROLE IN INDIAN ECONOMY
Cotton fiber accounts for almost 70 percent of the raw material mix of the textile industry. The different sectors of textile industry account for 20 percent of the industrial production, 7.5 percent of the GDP and provide employment to about 27 million persons. Textile industry contributes about 32 percent of the Foreign exchange earnings of the Country. Out of 8.1 m hectare of cotton area only 1/3 is under irrigation. The production of cotton which was 27.9 lakh bales only in 1947-1948 has made spectacular progress to reach the level of 156.5 lakh bales in 1995-1996 which constitutes a 460 percent increase. The import of cotton to meet the needs of the Indian mills which was a regular feature till 1978-1979 and now India is a net exporter of cotton exports about 5.15 lakh bales in 1996-1997. Production depends upon vagaries of monsoon and pest incidence. Maximum cotton produced in India used for domestic purpose and exporting substantial quantities, earning foreign exchange. Recently there is great demand for medium staple cottons. Due to the easy availability of the material in Punjab, it produces large amount of cotton.
Punjab is an agrarian economy with a low industrial output. The absence of basic minerals is the main reason for low level of industrial progress. A notable feature of the industrial scenario of the Punjab is its small-sized industrial units. There are 194,000 small scale industrial units in the state in addition to 586 large and medium units. Punjab produces about 70 percent of the best quality cotton in India. The easy availability of the raw material facilitates the localization of this industry in Punjab. In spite of several advantages, there is one main disadvantage that the total spindle capacity of the state is only 1.5 percent of the country. The cotton mills are located at Abohar, Malout, Phagwara, Amritsar, Kharar and Ludhiana. Malerkotla, Abohar, Malout and Bhatinda are important for cotton ginning and pressing and about 25.3 lakh bales of cotton are pressed annually over here. About 97 million kg of yarn and 36.5 million meters of cloth were produced in the cotton textile mills of Punjab.
There is very tough competition in almost every field. In the field of branded clothes there is also a very tough competition. After research we found that following are the main competitors of the Cotton County: KOUTONS, TQS, PRIKNIT and ALLEN COOPER. There is very minor difference between these five brands in terms of Price and Quality.