Renewed export business, new products and a diversification programme have helped Kanpur-based Mirza Tanners to overcome their worst setback in the past ten years. Because a lack of orders from South Africa and slow economic revival in the UK and the US, the company’s turnover declined by 12.7% in 2002-03 compared with 2001-02. The UK and the US are major markets for the company.
The downturn continued in the first quarter of 2003-04, when the company’s income declined by 19.3% from the same period the previous year. By the second quarter, the company were back to normal production and sales. ‘The British and the US markets started reviving in May and June, respectively. Now our factories are running to their full capacity’, said Irshad Mirza, chairman of Mirza Tanners. Kurvuilla Kuriakose, finance director, said the company were expecting a large order for sandals from a US firm and to meet the demand they would set up a new factory.
Source: Daily ‘Business Standard’, New Delhi
