The Kerala State Coir Corporation Ltd. is a Public limited company, fully owned by Kerala State Government established in 1969 for the systematic development of coir industry in the State of Kerala, India. The Corporation has its administrative wings and manufacturing facilities in a sprawling complex in Alappuzha, Kerala, South India.
Around 150 years ago a major British trading firm started the Company by the name “Major Volkkalt Brothers” in Alappuzha, Kerala. It was Indian’s 2nd company that manufactures and deals with coir products. Immediately after independence, this British company had shut down their operations, making its workers jobless. This has led to a major crisis for the coir industry as a whole. A lot of coir workers end up struggling to meet their lively hood as an impact to the shutting down.
With an active influence and cooperation of Coir Workers union and other major unions and political parities presented high pressure to the Government of Kerala for undertaking this company and thus to save the industry and the workers. As a solution to address the need of coir workers The Government of Kerala had undertaken this firm and established “ The Kerala State Coir Corporation” (K.S.C.C.) in the year 1969, as a company fully owned by the Government of Kerala.
The aim of this establishment was the improvement of coir industry in Kerala, and contribution towards Indian economic growth by uplifting of coir workers by providing job security, Industrial stability and to influence more private and public investment in the coir Industry.
KSCC is having diversified operations which include coconut husk defibering, coir spinning, curled coir manufacturing, production of various floor coverings, production of coir Geo-textiles, matting, mattresses etc. and other allied products made out of all natural fiber, including coir, jute, sisal, rubber etc. The KSCC has the largest and the most diversified manufacturing facility in the country. We believe in the philosophy of making products ensuring the highest standards of quality with the help of a dedicated team of staff and workers. This commitment to quality enables the company to face any sort of challenge in this sector. This is the first company in the public sector to introduce quality circles successfully among the workers and staff, proving its commitments to quality. The company has achieved an ISO 9001 certification in the year of 2001.
K.S.C.C is the nodal agency in implementing various schemes in the coir sector, announced by the Government of Kerala. Purchase Price Stabilization Scheme is one among them. In this scheme, K.S.C.C procure entire quantity of handmade coir products through coir cooperative societies at approved rates and supplying to exporters at fair price for equipping them to have a competitive edge in the export market. The scheme was implemented in 2007 and since then the turnover of the company is increasing steadily. The turnover for 2018-19 was Rs. 144 crores and for 2019-20. During the current fiscal year, we have achieved a sale of Rs. 135 Crores.
In order to utilize our sales network by knowing the demand and requirements of our clients, we now outsource a large portfolio of coir and non-coir products, including different types of Mat, Matting, Mattress, Jutes, Rugs, Sisal, Wool, Cotton, Polypropylene, PVC and Rubber from village artisans and other small scale manufactures at fair price and brought it to the end customer majorly exporters. These activities of KSCC eliminate exploitation of coir workers and ensure fair wages to them. Today KSCC has 6500 small-scale producers for coir mats and matting and 70 co-operative societies constituting around 35000 workers and 150 exporters as beneficiaries.
We entered into the business of Coir Mattresses in the year 2018-19 and we achieved an impressive turnover during 2018-19 and 2019-20. Inspired by this we have envisaged Establishment of own mattress manufacturing unit
Under MNREGS, KSCC is supplying coir Geo-textile to various panchayaths across all districts of Kerala state. The turnover under this was Rs. 12 crores in 2018-19 and same has increased to Rs. 25 crores in 2019-20.
We export our products to various countries including Australia, Brazil, USA, Poland, France, Kuwait, Kazakhstan and Guatemala. We have ISO 9001:2015, SEDEX, CT-PAT certifications and also the foreign buyers audit is also adhered to for export purpose. The company is having an excellent computer aided design centre which can bring latest designs sought after by overseas buyers. The export turnover was Rs. 12 crores in 2018-19 and same has increased to Rs. 25 crores in 2019-20.
KSCC run 11 showrooms (8 in Kerala and 3 outside Kerala). Moreover we have tie up with Hyper malls including D- Mart, Vishal Mega Mart and Reliance. There is increase in market share in Domestic market for KSCC. We have entered in to agreements with cooperative segment in the State for selling coir products through its outlets.