November 26, 2024,Amherst, Mass., United States : OrthoLite®, the global leader of branded, high-performance, comfort footwear solutions, has expanded its OrthoLite India (OIN) facility in Ambur, Tamil Nadu India, and opened a new sales office in Chennai, all thanks to recent growth under new leadership.
The new building expands the footprint of OIN by three times and enables increased capacity to two million pairs of insoles per month. It also bolsters OrthoLite’s leatherwork capabilities; OIN is now fully equipped to make leather footbeds. The new facility makes OrthoLite India the largest insole manufacturer in South Asia.
OrthoLite India opened its doors in June 2021 and is one of six of OrthoLite’s vertically integrated, global facilities. Through increased investments to the region as well as key new hires in supply chain management and operations, OIN is poised to expand local capacities to meet the needs of OrthoLite’s growing number of brand partners in the region.
In June 2023, OrthoLite announced Vikash Bajargyan as the new General Manager of OrthoLite India. In his position, Bajargyan has been managing overall operations at OIN, which has included leading manufacturing and business development, as well as establishing and managing relationships with brands and Tier 1 factory partners. His leadership has been instrumental in this expansion.
“Vikash has been a strong leader in helping us grow our business quickly to meet our growing demand in this important region,” said Glenn Barrett, founder and CEO of OrthoLite. “India is a thriving market both for our domestic consumer and export business. OrthoLite’s expanded facility will also serve as an important hub for leather insole craftsmanship and other forthcoming innovations within our company.”
Under Bajargyan’s leadership, OrthoLite India is growing its team. Sweta Kannan has been tapped as OIN’s Operations Manager. With a BA and MBA in Business Administration, Kannan most recently spent the past 10 years as General Manager and running operations for a textile factory in Ambur. She also has significant experience in running lean line manufacturing.
Earlier this year, OIN welcomed Sureshbabu Seenivasagam and Anbu Sundaram who possess over 25 years of experience in merchandising and global supply chain and warehousing logistics in footwear.
OrthoLite India is a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility that catalyzes local-for-local production and service. Sixty-one of OrthoLite’s 550+ global brand partners produce in India, and the region represents part of OrthoLite’s global production strategy to align its factories and provide efficient and exemplary service directly to local partners and T1s.
Like all of OrthoLite’s vertically-integrated, global manufacturing facilities, OrthoLite India brings consistency and capacity and delivers on the company-wide values of quality, sustainability, and continuous improvement.
