Bullish on the Indian textile sector and freeing of quota regime, apparel-maker Raymond has increased its investment in the joint venture with Italy's Gruppo Zambaiti to Rs 200 crore (Rs 2 billion) from the earlier Rs 180 crore (Rs 1.8 bilion).
"The Rs 20 crore increase in investment would help in providing additional capacity, if so needed, and advanced technology to the joint venture's unit," Gautam Singhania, Raymond chairman and managing director said on Thursday.
Raymond is bullish on the industry and expects the end of quota regime to have a "positive effect" on the textile sector, he said.
Raymond was also planning to invest Rs 100 crore (Rs 1 billion) for setting up a fabric facility with a three million metre capacity, even as it would ramp up its existing capacity to 24 million metres.
Under the earlier signed deal, Indian textile major along with Cotonificio Honegger SpA, a subsidiary of Gruppo Zambaiti, were planning to set up a greenfield facility in Maharashtra for setting up of fine cotton and cotton linen shirting fabric manufacturing unit.
The facility, which was slated to go on steam in 2006, would have a capacity to manufacture 11.5 million metres of shirting fabric, he said.
According to Pradeep Bhandari, Raymond Group president, the exact location of the facility was yet to be decided, which would be finalised after taking procurement and shipping needs into consideration.