Indian Terrain buys Eicher's garment plant

NEW DELHI: The Chennai-based Celebrity Fashions (P) Ltd, the Rs 150-crore apparel manufacturing firm which owns the Indian Terrain brand of men's casualwear, has acquired Eicher Motors' garment manufacturing unit in Chennai. Confirming the development, V.Rajgopal, MD, Celebrity Fashions, said, the deal had been signed on Thursday, for about Rs 5 crore.Eicher's garment manufacturing unit, called Eicher Span Design, has been in existence for 12 years, and has been exporting garments to the US. "Since garments is not Eicher's core business, the firm wanted to exit garment manufacturing. Eicher had approached SBI Caps to scout for a suitable buyer, and it fit with our requirement," said Rajgopal. Eicher's unit has a capacity of 400 machines and a workforce of 500 employees.With the deal in place, Eicher Span Design has become part of Celebrity Fashions. The latter, which has 9 manufacturing factories in Chennai, has been looking to scale up production. While Celebrity Fashions has a domestic presence through the four-year-old Indian Terrain brand, it supplies apparel to American and British fashion brands including Timberland, JC Penney, Diesel, Banana Republic, Quicksilver, Nautica and Marlboro. With 9 manufacturing facilities in Chennai, Celebrity Fashions has independent design studios to cater to foreign brands. According to Rajgopal, Indian Terrain has been growing at 15 per cent and is set to cross Rs 35 crore in sales in 2004-05. It is in direct competition to brands like Raymond's ColorPlus and Allen Solly. Rajgopal said Indian Terrain had targeted to become a Rs 100-crore brand by 2008, while Celebrity Fashions becoming a Rs 400-crore firm by 2007.