Indian Shoe Bazaar - Profiles: Drish Shoes Ltd., India

A 15-year-old company manufacturing and exporting top quality finished leather, shoe uppers and shoes with a phenomenal track record of growth in turnover and profits.

Exports about 95% of production to toughest, most demanding, premium segment of high fashion German market comprising of the who's who of European importers/manufactures like Manz, Fortuna, Jela, Meisi, Karstadt (all in Germany), Farrutx in Spain, Gallus in Austria, Start Rite and Firstland in UK, Geox and Time in Italy, ABCD in Belgium and Mexx in Holland.

World class integrated manufacturing facilities for all manufacturing operations from scratch to finished product involving latest imported machines from Europe housed in 200,000 sq. ft. of built up space. Own state of the art tannery having production of 7 million sq. ft. per annum. Four 100% dedicated ancillary units for upper making, having daily average production capacity of 500 to 800 pairs each. These ancillary units are further dedicated customer wise and specialize in different constructions. The total capacity in uppers is 1 million pairs p.a. The capacity of shoe plant is 400,000 pairs p.a. and of sole plant 20,0000 pairs p.a. Our sole making unit is capable of making TPR, PVC, PVC+ Leather, and leather unit soles.

Turnover in 2003 is US$ 17 millions.

Per unit realization is highest in the country in all the three products that the company makes i.e. Finished Leather, Leather shoe uppers and Leather Footwear. Company has received for past six consecutive years export awards from the Government nodal agency, Council of Leather Exports. Also received awards from National Productivity Council and Institute of Marketing and Management.

Professional promoters with solid industrial experience. Mr. I. S. Paul the Managing Director, is a merit scholar in M. Sc., having done M. B. A. from LAUSANNE, Switzerland. Served for seven years as Manager Foreign Business at Bank of India's establishment in India and Europe and joined M/s. Bawa Shoes Ltd. as Chief Executive before setting up this company. Appointed on board of SIDBI for two consecutive terms. Also serves on board of State Bank of Patiala.

Very strongly focused on innovation, R & D and Quality Control having devised a unique system of on-line quality control in which the entire workforce from the Worker to Senior Managers participate in100% quality checks. R & D efforts have helped develop soft leathers in Cow Calf and Buff Calf that are matched by few in the industry.

Special Strengths:
Manufacturers of top quality Children's shoes from age 9 months onwards, Gents' dress shoes & very fine quality ladies uppers. Manufacturers of, possibly, the best buffalo calf in the world.

Some facts in more detail
Drish Shoes Limited was established in 1988 and has today grown to have a total sales turnover of Rs. 800 millions with reserve of Rs. 230 millions, net worth of Rs. 348 millions and fixed assets of Rs. 268 millions.

The People
Four full time working Directors who are all professionals and handle the following key areas individually assist the Managing Director:

· Raw Purchase
· Leather Production
· Upper and Shoe Production
· Export and Import

The company's most important asset is its work force of 1200 skilled workers and trained leather and footwear technologists. The company employs MBAs, C.As, qualified engineers, 15 leather technologists and 12 graduates in Footwear Technology from FDDI, India's premier footwear education institute. It also constantly sends its personnel for technical training in India and abroad.

The Facilities

The company has a state of the art tannery at Nalagarh manufacturing 600,000 sq.ft. of leather per month. The tannery is equipped with tanning & dyeing drums of various sizes giving it complete flexibility in dyeing lots from 5 sq.ft. to 5,000 sq.ft. in as many as 20 colours per day and can handle full chrome, semi chrome and vegetable tanning.
All upper manufacturing is done in four dedicated ancillaries, each making 500 to 800 pairs a day and specializing in different constructions and customers. Hence one ancillary makes only California uppers, another makes only children uppers for Jela and another makes only high quality gents uppers for Manz. This ancillarisation helps in each unit developing expertise as per a particular customer's needs and ensures very high standards of quality.
All shoe making is done in a central unit at Panchkula, which is equipped with BUSM machines. This unit can produce 1500 pairs of cement lasted shoes and 2000 pairs of California and stroble shoes per day. The total constructed area of the production unit exceeds 200,000 sq. ft.

The Focus
The company started its exports in 1988 by selling to one of the most discerning customers Manz AG of Germany. At that time the company took the crucial decision of making only high quality products and based its entire strategy on the belief that it would be better to work for a few demanding customers rather than be lured by the attraction of doing low end large volume business. This helped in developing a system of very stringent quality controls and gave a very firm grounding of quality consciousness in every employee. With this focus on quality the capacities kept growing and today the production team can handle very high production rates and volumes without loosening the hold on quality.

The Product
The company specializes in making fine grain Cow Calf, Buff Calf and Nubuk Leathers. A big strength of the company is its ability to procure the best raw material available in the country. Being located in Northern India, which is the source of Buff Calf and Cow-Calf skins, has contributed to the company's ability to make international class leathers. This ability was further enhanced by the fact that all raw purchase is done under the personal attention of one of the directors of the company. For heavier leathers the company imports the raw hides from Sweden, Italy and Ukraine.

In Shoes the company again took on the challenge of starting its production with Manz, one of the toughest Gents' shoes brands in Germany. Learning the hard way, Drish now exports the most expensive footwear out of the country and would have the honor of doing the entire shoe production for Manz which is being currently sourced from Italy and sold in Germany under the prestigious Mercedes brand. Along-with its excellence in cement lasted shoes the company has gained expertise in other constructions like California, Strobel, Cosy and waterproof shoes. Drish has acquired special skill in handling children shoes in various constructions and is producing these for the best European brands like Jela, Start Rite and ABCD. Fur lined and textile lined house shoes in Cosy construction is another specialty. Drish has also mastered a unique technique of making waterproof Shoes based on Sympatex and Water-Tex materials. All new developments are assisted by a newly acquired CAD-CAM system.