For over a century, Gloster has been weaving one of the world’s oldest fibres into modern industry - it is fundamentally a jute manufacturer, born in 1872 on the banks of the Hooghly and still run by the same Bangur family from Kolkata. What began as a single mill has evolved into a self-contained operation that takes the raw agricultural crop and turns it into everything from grain sacks to car insulation, all on a single 175-acre campus employing around 4,500 people. The recurring approach is vertical integration with a captive fuel source: the company controls the conversion from raw jute to finished product, and it burns its own process waste to power the factory, a closed loop that has let it eliminate coal entirely. # Business segments Two engines at different stages - a century-old jute manufacturer anchored by government packaging law, and a power-cable business rebuilt from an insolvency acquisition and only just starting commercial production. ## 1. Jute goods: the fibre-to-factory engine that carries the group **Government law mandates that every grain of foodgrain in India moves in jute sacks, and Gloster makes both the cloth and the bags - that structural demand funds everything else.** - **The law is the floor** - under the Jute Packaging Materials Act, 100% of foodgrain and 20% of sugar must be packed in jute, a compulsory order that was valid through mid-2025 and creates a base of non-discretionary demand no synthetic rival can touch. - **One site, every step** - raw jute arrives by road from the surrounding districts of West Bengal, India’s top jute-growing state, and leaves as finished hessian and sacking; those two products alone account for roughly 95% of turnover. - **Waste is fuel, not cost** - the company has stopped burning coal and instead feeds jute caddies, the process waste, into an energy-efficient boiler, which means the factory’s energy bill is partly insulated from fossil-fuel prices. - **Beyond the gunny bag** - the same fibre is engineered into geo-textiles that hold up roads and riverbanks, thermal insulation tested for car dashboards, and a “Gloster Lifestyle” line of shopping bags and yoga mats sold to export clients like MUJI in Japan and Lottemart in Korea. - **A new mill, same model** - a wholly owned subsidiary, Gloster Nuvo, fired up a state-of-the-art jute mill on an adjacent 30-acre plot in March 2024, built at a capital outlay of about Rs. 300 crores in its first phase, effectively doubling down on the same integrated playbook. ## 2. Cables & other electrical products: the rebuilt factory next door **An insolvent cable plant was bought for Rs. 72 crore, gutted and reconstructed, and only began shipping its first certified power cables in mid-2024 - it is a greenfield start-up wearing a brownfield shell.** - **Bought through bankruptcy court** - the subsidiary Fort Gloster Industries was acquired via the Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process under the Insolvency & Bankruptcy Code, with control handed over in August 2020. - **Certified before a single sale** - the factory had to secure BIS certification to the IS-7098 standard for medium-voltage power cables before it could produce a commercial metre; that certification arrived in May 2024 and production started the same day. - **Same address, different industry** - the reconstructed facility sits at Bauria, Howrah, physically adjacent to the century-old jute works, sharing the parent’s industrial land and infrastructure but none of its fibre know-how. # Group structure and partners **A listed parent with five wholly owned Indian subsidiaries, two of which are being folded back in, plus a proposed associate to chase cost-efficient gunny bags.** - Gloster Limited is the standalone listed entity, traded on both the BSE and the National Stock Exchange, with the founding family holding roughly 73%. - The five subsidiaries are Fort Gloster Industries (cables), Gloster Nuvo (the new jute mill), Network Industries (also acquired via insolvency), and two dormant entities - Gloster Lifestyle and Gloster Specialities - which are being amalgamated into the parent with an appointed date of 1 April 2025. - A proposed 49% stake in a new Special Purpose Vehicle, to be incorporated for manufacturing jute gunny bags, would create the group’s first associate company, with a first tranche of investment targeted by March 2026. - The company sits inside a web of industry bodies - from the Indian Jute Mills Association to the Indo German Chamber of Commerce - and banks with a consortium that includes State Bank of India, HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank.