Gujarat: 150 Morbi firms join hands to take on Chinese manufacturers

AHMEDABAD: In a novel initiative supporting the vision of Atmanirbhar Bharat or self reliant India, around 150 firms in Morbi have joined hands to create a local alternative to products manufacturing currently being outsourced to China.
Known as a hub of ceramic tiles, Morbi also houses 350 micro, small and medium enterprises engaged in manufacturing of clocks, toys, gift articles, electronic and electrical as well as plastic products.
“There are several multinationals that outsource manufacturing of their products or brands to China. With skilled manpower of 25,000 and required infrastructure, these 150 companies are well equipped to make many such products in Morbi,” said Ajanta-Oreva Group managing director Jaysukh Patel, who is spearheading the Morbi firms’ initiative.
“We have started approaching these MNCs and other big corporates and we are offering them to manufacture their products in Morbi at the same cost they are made in China,” added Patel.
These 150 firms have the required skill and capacity to make products such as sandwich toasters, heaters, irons, fans, hair dryer, air cooler, kettle, ear phones, calculators, electric toys among others.
“We have also formed an informal association and have agreed to collaborate to enhance our capacity and quality so that we can execute bulk orders either from multinational companies or big Indian companies,” added Patel, whose company has already bagged an order to make 2 lakh pieces of calculators from a foreign company, which outsources large chunk of calculators from China.
With consumers focussing primarily on essential goods post Covid-19 outbreak, demand for Morbi-based companies’ core products like clocks has declined. “Our plants are operating at 10% capacity. Apart from spare capacity, we have skilled manpower, infrastructure, expertise and financial resources to make several consumer electronics and other products, which these MNCs outsource from China and sell it India and other parts of the world,” he added.
Morbi firms eye US, Europe
Jivraj Mistry, owner, Victor Clock Industries said, “With many companies in America, Europe and other countries are apprehensive about outsourcing manufacturing to China post Covid-19 pandemic and they are looking for alternative destinations. We can emerge as a new option for them.” The association has prepared a comprehensive report covering details of products these 150 companies make, their plant and machinery capacity, number of skilled workers. “The report has already been shared with the companies that outsource manufacturing of their electrical, electronic, toys and plastic products to China,” Jaysukh Patel added.