Ballari jeans industry feeling the heat of slowdown

The jeans trousers manufacturers and suppliers in the city are feeling the heat of economic slowdown. The industry has reported a 20% dip in sales.

The manufacturing units here get denim fabric and other raw materials from Ahmedabad and Surat. They do direct transactions with the traders and buyers in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Kerala, who export the products to Sri Lanka, Singapore and Middle-East countries.

But the manufacturers are now reeling under crisis as the demand for the jeans trousers from the regular buyers has come down drastically owing to the economic slump.

Unable to face the onslaught of shopping malls, mounting stocks and poor recovery of debts, several medium and big jeans trousers manufacturers have shut shop or shifted their units to Ahmedabad. A few units, which cannot afford to halt production, are functioning despite losses.

The slowdown is having a cascading effect. The manufacturing units are facing the closure owing to a significant fall in the demand from their traditional markets in neighbouring states. The slump has hit many families hard in Ballari, Chitradurga districts and Adoni in neighbouring Andhra, who stitch their lives by
taking piecework from the businessmen, stitch trousers and return the final product back to the manufacturers/suppliers.

“Only last year, we had continuous work orders from the manufacturers or the suppliers. But this year, we have 15 to 20% less work owing to slump,” says Narasingarao, a resident of Ballari who is into cutting work for the past 35 years.

The only positive amid the gloom is the earnings of workers may have come down, but they have not lost their jobs.

District Jeans Garments Merchants Association president Tapasvilal C Jain told DH, “We are not getting orders from the buyers. Also, people are not willing to spend. Add to it the onslaught of the multi-brand retail outlets and shopping malls who sell readymade garments at very cheap rates.”

“The manufacturers or suppliers supply jeans trousers to the retailers on trade credit. Earlier, the retailers used to repay the suppliers in a month or two. Now, they are finding it tough to repay for months due to the business slump,” says Lucky M Shah, former president of the association.