KOCHI: Four years after diverting a mega investment plan from Kerala to Telangana, Kitex Garments is set to receive an invitation from another state. The Andhra Pradesh government has deputed a minister to visit Kitex managing director Sabu Jacob, in an attempt to woo him to invest in the state.
Andhra Pradesh Textiles Minister S Savitha will arrive in Kochi on Saturday to visit the headquarters of Kitex Garments – the second largest producer of children’s garments in the world – in Kizhakkambalam. According to reports, the minister will hand over an invitation from Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu to Sabu, inviting him to Amaravati for a personal meeting.
“Currently, we don’t have any plan for industrial investment in Andhra Pradesh. But it seems the chief minister is very keen to attract investment to Andhra Pradesh. Let’s see what message the minister brings,” said Sabu.
Kitex Garments had presented a Rs 3,500-crore investment proposal at the Ascend Global Investment Meet organised by the Kerala government in 2020. However, Sabu withdrew from the project following alleged harassment by the state government.
According to him, 11 raids were conducted on Kitex premises in June 2021 by various government departments. Meanwhile, then Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao sent a private jet to Kochi inviting Sabu Jacob to invest in the state. Sabu has launched two yarn-to-garments facilities in Hyderabad and Warangal.
Expressing satisfaction over the support from the Telangana government, Sabu said Telangana had highlighted the Kitex project as their major achievement at the recent World Economic Forum meeting in Davos.
Kitex has made the biggest investment in the country’s textile sector during the past five years. The Warangal unit which was opened on April 2 employs 15,000 people and will be fully operational by December 2025. Once the Hyderabad facility also becomes functional, Kitex will be able to provide employment to 50,000 people, he said. Sabu said the crisis in Bangladesh and the talks with European Union on free trade have opened new opportunities for Kitex in the global market.