We expect to deploy 1 lakh people to ramp up personal protective gear manufacturing: Wildcraft

Team Udayavani, May 31, 2020, 1:54 PM IST

Bengaluru: Outdoor, adventure activity and lifestyle products maker Wildcraft expects to deploy around one lakh people in the next 60 days as it scales up manufacturing and distribution of its personal protective gears (PPG) to support the fight against the coronavirus pandemic.

The Bengaluru-based firm, which has tied up with 63 factories in 11 cities so far employing around 30,000 people directly and indirectly for the manufacturing of its re-usable PPE coverall (Hz Series of Hazmats) and protective masks ”Supermask”, has a production capacity of one million masks per day and one million Hazmat suits a month.

Wildcraft, which developed re-usable PPE coverall to assist the Ministry of Textiles for meeting urgent need of Indian medics and healthcare workers, is now looking at transcending personal protection gears that originated from the healthcare space into lifestyle for which it is preparing itself with a mega network expansion.

“COVID-19 is propelling a lot of demand but… this industry has not seen confluence of healthcare products which transcends into lifestyle space…We have transcended these from pure play safety, healthcare to lifestyle domain,” Wildcraft co-founder Gaurav Dublish told PTI.

He further said, “The moment we are able to propel this into a lifestyle domain, the demand contour will shift. This will no longer be for patients and patient-care personnel but for common people to use while stepping out.”

Stressing that Wildcraft is prepared at least in the PPG segment to answer Prime Minister Narendra Modi”s call for self reliance, Dublish said, “We should be in a position to be able to deploy one lakh people if we have to clearly take up this opportunity to at least demonstrate in a small way on PM”s exhortation that we can be self-reliant but to also show the world what it takes to be stand on your own.”

He further said, “With the demand engine working, we are confident that if not in the next 50 days but in 60 days, you will have Wildcraft directly and indirectly employing one lakh people in India.”

Explaining the company”s strategy, another Wildcraft co-founder Siddharth Sood said the planned deployment of manpower will be across the value chain.

“While we are increasing people in manufacturing, we have also started scaling up people on the distribution side. We are planning to put up around 10,000 kiosks in the next 60 days and that is going to require a lot of manning as well,” he said.

Elaborating further, Dublish said, “We already have 30,000 in manufacturing, which we are looking at ramping up to 50,000. We are looking at 20,000 people to man the kiosks to mitigate the supply chain gap that India is facing.”

He further said, “On the raw material side, the indigenisation which we have been able to do in the last 60 days that itself is indirectly employing 5,000 to 10,000 people. So, we have a clear line of sight.”

When asked if the company sees challenges in finding manpower considering the reverse migration of labours during the lockdown, Sood said it was not an issue for Wildcraft.

“On the manufacturing side, because we were able to give employment starting March 27, a lot of workforce that we have never felt out of work or low on money. We were able to plug that outflow of migrant labours going back to their home towns because we were able to willfully employ them during the lockdown,” he said.

Similarly, Sood said, “The same thing was replicated to our partner factories. So, we are honestly not finding skill gap and we are able to get the amount of people that we need.”