Leather Belt Making Business Process in India

Narendra Kumar

17 Oct, 2019

Leather Belt Making Business

The Leather Belt Making Business market has experienced a major boom in the last few years in India because of:

• Ease availability of raw materials as India has the largest livestock in the world
• Government incentives to manufacturing units
• Growing demand for leather products in the local market that view leather goods as fashion and style statements. This thought is now ably aided by rising domestic disposal income
• The rising number of skilled and trained workforce
• Lastly rising exports as a result of increased demand for Indian leather goods in foreign markets.

What are the Current Industry Statistics?

In the leather footwear and garments industry, India is the second-largest producer in the world by manufacturing 13% of the world’s total leather hides/skin.

The Indian leather industry was worth 13 billion dollars in the last financial year as per statistics available from government sources. It is estimated to grow to almost 25 billion dollars by 2027.

By launching the Indian Leather Belt Making Business Development Programme (ILDP) the central government aims at encouraging businesses to set up new leather units and upgrade to their existing facility to achieve higher revenues and gains.

The major markets for Indian raw Leather Belt Making Business and finished products are Germany, USA, UK, Italy, France, Hong Kong, Soan, Netherlands, China, Denmark, UAE, and Belgium. As per data procured from the Indian Ports custom department the foreign countries that have majorly bought the Indian leather belts in the last six months of 2017 were the USA, Bangladesh, and Pakistan.

What are the Existing Opportunities in the Leather Belt Manufacturing Industry?

• A simple process that does not require huge space
• Suitable as a small and medium scale industry and can be started on small investments.
• The raw material in the form of finished leather-like plain or chrome tanned cowhides in shades of black and brown are easily available. The detachable items like the buckles are also readily available in the market in different designs and plates.

To manufacture leather belts, the requirements are:-

1. A power-operated strap cutting machine
2. A skiving machine to skive the edges
3. An industrial sewing machine
4. Side creasing machine
5. Manually operated tools for fixing the buckle

What are the Licenses and Compliances that Need to be Procured?

For a leather belt manufacturing unit to successfully operate, the following registrations and licenses are required:-

1. The business needs to be registered. T can be established either as a sole proprietorship-partnership, LLP Registration or Company Registration with the Registrar of Companies, India.
2. License from the local municipal authorities and GST registration.
3. Udyog Aadhaar MSME Registration for gaining benefits under the MSMED Act.
4. Import Export license registration from the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) in case the leather belts are to be exported to other countries.

Since belt making does not involve any process of environmental pollution, no compliance certification is required against the same.

India is one of the major sourcing destinations for many international brands, some of the following social compliance and audits are a compulsory parameter for their suppliers to be able to work with these companies.

1. SA8000 certification for organizations to practice socially acceptable practices in the workplace
2. WRAP is a social compliance certification for safe, lawful, humane and ethical manufacturing
3. Business Social Compliance Initiative (BSCI) for driving social compliance in factories and farms
4. ICS Certification
5. Supplier Ethical Data Exchange (SEDEX) maintains and manages ethical supply chain data worldwide

The Council of Leather Exports, India is an autonomous non-profit organization that works for the development of the leather industry in India and is responsible for making regulations and compliances for its member organizations. These policies are mandatory for its 3500 plus members to be followed under the Code of Conduct:-

1. No member will employ child labor as per the Child Labor Act 1986 and Factories Act 1948.
2. Even in the case of production happening on behalf of the member outside his premises, the member is responsible for ensuring that no form of child labor is employed by the third party.
3. In case it is found that the there is a violation of the above by a member the council will issue a show-cause notice so that the member can give a relevant
4. If found guilty the member can be de-registered from his membership.