Kothari Industrial Corp to invest Rs 5,000 cr, generate 50,000-plus jobs by 2027: Ahmed
To revive the relisted entity, Ahmed has leveraged his connections, managing to involve marquee investors such as a Qatar ruling family member.
CHENNAI: With Pradip D KothariPradip D Kotharistepping down as chairman and director of the Chennai-based Kothari Industrial Corporation Ltd (KICL) on Tuesday, J Rafiq Ahmed, who joined KICL as director in 2017, has now got full control of the diversified group.
To revive the relisted entity, Ahmed has leveraged his connections, managing to involve marquee investors such as a Qatar ruling family member.
In December last year, he roped in Falah Jassim JM AL-Thani, who picked up a 10 per cent stake in KICL via FJ Global and Investment. At that time, Ahmed had mentioned about setting up an NPK fertilizer plant in Qatar, at an investment of Rs 7,000 crore, two leather factories in TN and a skilling school for drone operations in Madurai.
On Wednesday, giving an update on these projects apart from sharing KICL’s business strategy, he said while the NPK plant plan is still on, KICL proposes to establish such a new facility in south Tamil Nadu. “With a manufacture in India focus, we have been able to arrange long-term contract (15 years) for raw materials,” he said, noting that the confidence of shareholders and investors had led him to look at setting up a greenfield fertilizer plant in TN, given that India is one of the largest importers of fertilizers.
While chief ministers from other states like Odisha had been inviting KICL, he chose TN especially due to the strong ‘Horse’ brand recall among farmers of the state. “We have started the process and have identified the land already. We are very aggressive on fertilizers, especially NPK,” he stated.
Speaking about Phoenix Kothari Footwear, a joint venture between KICL and Taiwan’s Evervan Group, Ahmed said two million shoe pairs have already been dispatched. These have been ‘manufactured and sold in India,’ he elaborated.
On February 26, a second MoU with Taiwan’s ShoeTown would be signed when it plans to onboard one the world’s leading brands.
For the second factory at Eraiyur, the semi-finished infrastructure for non-leather factories, already exists. The projects, including the footwear facility at Karur, would entail an investment of Rs 5,000 crore. “Already five component manufacturers have signed with us,” he said.
Dwelling on the component cluster in the works at Perambalur, he said this new investment is in addition to the Rs 1,761 crore by JR One Footwear Pvt Ltd, a JV between Phoenix Kothari Footwear and ShoeTown Group, to manufacture Crocs brand of footwear here.
“By 2027, our target is to manufacture nearly 100 million pairs and employ over 50,000 in the leather units,” he said.
KICL is also planning an industrial park for footwear on 400 acres of land in southern TN, where factories, including for ancillary, to be set up, he added.
As regards the drone school in Madurai, he said, the licence inspection is expected to take place next week. This is a 100 per cent KICL project, which would skill women and train drone pilots.
