Flawed Fabrics
Textile production is a continuous process, with machines running 24 hours a day. The five investigated mills all have a system with three shifts each day: a day shift (starting between 6–7am until 2–3pm), a halfnight shift (starting between 2–3pm and ending at 10–11pm) and a night shift (10–11pm until 6–7am). Most mills use a rotating system whereby one week a group of workers is assigned to do the day shifts, the following week they do the half-night shift and the third week they work the full-night shift, and so on.
2.4 Company profiles of the five investigated spinning mills 2.4.1 Best Cotton Mills Best Corporation (P) Limited (hereafter referred to as Best Corporation) is a manufacturer of knitted garments in Tirupur. Best Corporation is an integrated textile company with operations from spinning to garmenting. It claims to be one of the leading Indian exporters of knitted garments. Best Corporation also sells to the domestic market. The company produces cotton yarn; cotton finished fabric; cotton/elastane greige (that is unbleached or undyed cloth or yarn) and finished fabric; knitted garments (specialising in underwear and baby wear) and elastic tape (using imported rubber and elastane). Best Corporation’s operations are managed by Mr R. Rajkumar, Managing Director and Mr R. Dhanapal, Joint Managing Director. The Chairman of Best Corporation is Best Ramasamy. According to its website, Best Corporation has an annual turnover of US$ 80m and employs around 5,000 people. Best Corporation is a member of both TASMA and SIMA. Best Corporation includes the following units (see Table 3).
Table 3: Units of Best Corporation Name of the unit
Address Male
Female
Total
Best Corporation Limited Head office
No. 89/2, Avinashi Road, Padmavathypuram, Kumarnagar, Tirupur – 641 603, Tamil Nadu, India
150
200
350
S.R. Garments CMT unit
Best Garden Rd, Athu Palayam, Pirivu, Anupparpalayam, Tirupur – 641 652
300
475
77528
Best Corp Ltd CMT unit
No. 75, Lakshminagar, 50 Feet Road, Tirupur – 2
200
275
475
Best Cotton Mills Spinning mill
C. Ammapatti, Pollachi Road, Dharapuram, Tamil Nadu – 638 657
250
650
90029
Best Corporation Spinning Mill Spinning mill and CMT unit
Edayanginaru, Vengipalayam, Dharapuram Road, Tamil Nadu
300
700
1000
Blue Mountain Apparels30
Coonoor City
45
55
100
RS Garments31
New Tirupur
220
80
300
RR Garments
Tirupur
235
115
350
Tirupur
250
150
400
RRD Tex
33
32
Number of workers
18