Paragon Apparel Pvt. Ltd.

(B59) Noida India Paragon

Apparels Pvt. Ltd. (D71)
With a turnover of Rs 170 cr, Noida- based Paragon Apparels Pvt.
Ltd. has come a long way since its inception. The company that
started its journey in the year 1999 with just 15 machines in
Tughlaqabad Extension had never thought that one buyer will
change its fate overnight. The company saw a big turning point
when just after one year of operations Adidas approached it and
started buying sportswear products. In conversation with Roshan
Baid, Director, Paragon Apparels, Team Perfect Sourcing brings
an interesting voyage of a young and focused person, who
worked on the basic principle of the trade i.e just be different and
follow the path of profession with full commitment and dedication.
Noida-based
sportswear
manufacturer/exporter,
Paragon
Apparels has been associated with Reebok and adidas brands for
many years and that has given the Paragon management an
opportunity to understand the value of lean management,
characterized as a systematic approach to the identification and
elimination of waste (MUDA) and non value added activities
through continuous improvement. Impressed with the entire
concept, the management led by Roshan Baid, Chairman
Paragon Apparels made a strong commitment to undertake a 900
machine capacity expansion as per lean setup.
Paragon Apparel Pvt Ltd
Paragon Apparel is a part of Arihant Group of Companies, the
group turnover is USD 55.25 Million, which has interest in
various fields like automotive parts / edible oil extraction /
garment exports / confectionary. Paragon Apparel is promoted
by Mr. Roshan Baid & Mr. Sidharth Baid. Both promoters hold
degrees in garment manufacturing and merchandising from
National Institute of Fashion Technology, Indias premier institute
of fashion technology.

As we started the conversation, Baid humbly discloses, I

have always followed one strategy in this trade and it is to work
on a niche category so that buyers have to come and look out for
you themselves. Paragon Apparels is a manufacturer, exporter
and supplier of sportswear that includes t-shirts, trousers, short
pants, ladies tops and kids wear as well. After completing
education from NIFT and then after working with
Gokaldas Exports for around two years, Baid followed his dream
and decided to set up his own company. We started of with just
15 machines in the year 1999, and today we have 1400 machines,
we are now expanding it further to 2000 machines in January
2015, said a proud Baid.
Baid believes that innovation and expansion is the only way one
can reach new heights and match up to requirement of the market
as well as of industry. The company has reached many new
milestones after getting associated with Adidas. We started
our own printing unit in 2005-2006, which was an added
advantage, informs Baid. In 2009, the company started a
factory based on the principles of lean manufacturing with 900
machines. Baid shares, We have recently started our another
garment unit in Noida where we will add 600 more machines by
January 2015 which will increase the production capacity of our
company from 5 lakh garments per month to 7 lakh garments per
month. He also added, Beyond our garment unit we are also
coming up with fabric mill in Himachal Pradesh where we will
manufacture sports fabriclike cotton and polyester. The new
fabric mill in Una, H.P. will produce 5 tonnes of fabric. A garment
dyeing and washing plant is also being set up at the garment unit
to give high and consistent quality to products especially in ladies
wear segment.
There is no dearth of work in the market especially for those who

are manufacturing niche products, averred Baid. The companys

major chunk of business still comes from Adidas. He added,
Adidas is the biggest buyer for our company and has been
associated with us from the last 14 years. Also, it is associated
with Marks & Spencers, Walt Disney, Hummel,
Benetton International, Johns and many more.
With all in-house facilities like printing mill, embroidery unit, well
equipped laboratories, garment dyeing and washing plant the
company is trying to be fulfilled in every possible manner. The
USP of our company is the niche product and continuous
innovation so we are adding value at every stage because
supporting industries are very unreliable. He further added, We
are coming up with new designs almost every day with the help of
Korean technician who is working round the clock and is creating
new fabrics.
Baid further affirmed that the products made by the company
are polyester garments which are still not made in India in a big
way. The properties of polyester makes it the best fabric for sports
because it is light weight, has the capacity to absorb large amount
of sweat and even there are lots of treatments could be done in
this fabric, thus it is ideal for sportswear. All major sportswear
garments are available in polyester fabric and as we work for
Adidas and Reebok we are making mostly polyester
garments only.

Paragon Apparels Pvt. Ltd is also manufacturing t-shirts for IPL

and has made t-shirts for Kolkata Knight Riders, Bangalore Royal
Challengers and Delhi Daredevils. He feels that there is still
a huge untapped market for polyester which if worked upon can
bring huge business to India. 40% of the world business is in
polyester and we almost do negligible business in polyester,
so one can analyze, the number of opportunities, we just require
half or 1% and that will be big for us, said Baid.
Currently, the company employs 4000 people, however, the
numbers would go up once the expansion of fabric and garment
unit is done. We have 1000 ladies working with us who were
trained by us to become operators, he added. Baid feels that
the industry has seen many ups and downs and there were some
big turning points that changed the course especially removal of
quotas in 2004.
While discussing about the current market situation Baid said,
Market is full of opportunities as China is getting expensive but
the problem is that we are not organized, we dont have scales
and capacities to fill the gap.He also observes that a large section
of buyers are coming to India but players are not able to provide

them consistency in quality because of the labour issues which is

the biggest problem of the industry right now. As a result a lot
of business is moving out of India. In last six months the labour
wages has been increased by 25-30% whereas the productivity
remains the same, the laws are not industry friendly and there is
no discipline, points out Baid.
According to him, the working hours should be increased and
labour laws should be industry friendly so the growth of the
industry is accelerated. The Government has a major role to play
here as they can only inculcate new policies and laws and also
reduce bureaucracy from the industry. Government can work on
policies, but we have to work on bringing new and innovative
products so that buyers remain intact, said Baid.
To remain ahead and offer competitive rates, the company
has recently installed new technologies like sublimation printing
and several others so that both productivity and efficiency is
improved. Technology has to be upgraded as that helps us in
coming up with new ideas, explains Baid. He also informed that
in the company technicians are regularly researching on new
technologies available and instead of changing the entire
machinery attachments are used with machines that solve the
purpose. We have an industrial engineering department also
which is headed by a Sri Lankan, who keeps on creating new
attachments so that we can make our work more precise,
added Baid. The company is working on areas like lean
manufacturing, industrial engineering, updation of
technology segment to make our production more reliable and
efficient.

Paragon Apparels Pvt. Ltd. has its presence all around the world
due to Adidas as it is the only supplier of Adidas internationally.
We have not restricted our market, we are open for everyone who
deals in niche products, said Baid. The company is also supplying
to domestic market not only for Adidas and Reebok but also for
other brands like Kappa brand of Lifestyle, Disney, US Polo and
many others.
The unit of Paragon Apparels Pvt. Ltd. is fully compliant and is
also approved by Marks & Spencers, Adidas, Benetton, VF
Corporation and all the major brands of the world.
He emphasized, My mantra for the growth is to innovate, create
niche products, innovative marketing and tap new products
because there are so many products that are still untouched.
He informed that the company is now getting into swimwear
category as well and will start manufacturing swimwear garments
from the next month. As far as growth is concerned we are
growing by 30% every year and we will keep on growing by 30%
every year, said a confident Baid.
Talking about the increasing competition, he said No
doubt alternative sources for manufacturing like Myanmar,
Vietnam, Cambodia are coming up strongly but they too have
a limit and will not be able to fill capacities and scales
required.He further emphasized, China is a big ocean and as it is
becoming expensive the opportunities will move to India because
we have same man power, quality products for which we
are known in the industry, however, industry needs to be geared
up and grab these opportunities otherwise the orders will
automatically divert to other countries.