Coats, the world’s leading manufacturer in thread and structural components for apparel and footwear, has officially opened a new state-of-the-art Sustainability Hub – a spinning and twisting pilot plant in Madurai, India to further progress its sustainability commitment.

Over the last 4 years, Coats has achieved strong progress against ambitious targets in the areas of energy, materials, water, waste and people. The company has now announced new targets for 2026 across the same material areas and these provide the next horizon towards its 2030 commitments. Emissions reduction across the company’s entire value chain is at the heart of the new targets.

The new Sustainability Hub in Madurai will sit alongside the Coats Sustainability Hub in Shenzhen, China, accelerating the material transition to recycled and renewable materials. The two hubs will work together to innovate new generation materials for sustainable sewing threads for apparel, footwear and performance materials. This material transition journey is fundamental to the delivery of Coats’ emissions reduction targets.

The Sustainability Hub in Madurai will support customers and other stakeholders in creating sustainability in the industry, enabling Coats to streamline sustainability innovation, enhance brand collaborations and facilitate faster sustainable product offers and market entry capabilities.

It is part of a US$ 10 million investment planned over next five years in scaling up the development of green technologies and materials to accelerate the achievement of Coats’ ambitious sustainability targets.

Rajiv Sharma, Group Chief Executive, commented: “I am pleased to announce the launch of this state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Madurai, as the ‘Centre of Excellence’ for spinning and twisting in Coats. We are firmly committed to a journey towards net zero and alongside our energy transition strategy, materials transition is fundamental to this.”

The new state-of-the-art spinning and twisting pilot facility is located in the heritage site of Coats in Madurai in a sprawling area of 10,000 square feet. It has the infrastructure to process multiple fibres, blends & high-performance fibres like aramids.

www.coats.com