Spinning a Success Story

Rajasthan Spinning & Weaving Mills Ltd, the flagship of the LNJ Bhilwara Group, counts among India’s top textile companies. We spoke to Riju Jhunjhunwala, who has been behind the group’s forays into IT and denim fabrics, apart from being at the helm of affairs of the Rajasthan Spinning & Weaving Mills Ltd, as its managing director.

- Joseph Rozario & Sneha Mahale

A VERSATILE, MULTI-PRODUCT CONGLOMERATE WITH interests in textiles, graphite electrodes, power and IT, the LNJ Bhilwara Group’s journey began when group founder Lakshmi Niwas Jhunjhunwala set up a small textile unit in Bhilwara. Growth and diversification followed and today the Bhilwara Group boasts of a host of listed and unlisted companies, multiple manufacturing units across the country and a footprint across half the globe. It employs around 25,000 people, many of whom are based in Bhilwara, which has, over the years, grown into a prosperous textile hub with good educational institutions, medical facilities and infrastructure.

Having overseen most of this transformational journey, L N Jhunjhunwala retired in the mid-nineties and his son Ravi Jhunjhunwala took over as chairman of the group, a post he still holds. In the late nineties, Ravi Jhunjhunwala’s son, Riju Jhunjhunwala joined the group. Today he is the managing director of Rajasthan Spinning & Weaving Mills Ltd (RSWM Ltd), the flagship company of the group. “From a small start, the LNJ Bhilwara Group today has cemented its reputation as one of India’s most esteemed business conglomerates with a presence across diverse business spaces ranging from textiles to power,” says the junior Jhunjhunwala, offering a glimpse of the group’s achievements.

The veracity of Riju Jhunjhunwala’s statement can be gauged from the fact that the group comprises 17 companies, 21 manufacturing facilities and 11 marketing offices with interests in textiles, power, graphite electrodes and information technology. Approximately 70 per cent of the group’s revenue comes from textiles, 15 per cent from graphite electrodes and the remaining from the power and IT divisions. The group has bagged several prestigious awards for mainly exports and is involved in a number of CSR initiatives in and outside Bhilwara.