“Surat has 60-70% of market share” – Embroidery manufacturer

05 May '09

4 min read

The embroidery industry has now close to nearly 50,000 machines installed in the textile cluster city of Surat. Most of these machines are high tech embroidery machines imported mainly from China and other countries. This industry has been giving the original embroiderers in the city of Kolkatta and Varanasi and surrounding areas, famed for their embroidery on Kolkatta make and Banarasi silk sarees respectively, a run for their money, by grabbing their market shares.

Fibre2fashion spoke to two eminent textile businessmen, Mr Arun Jariwala and Mr Haresh Chavatia to know about the evolution of the embroidery sector, its progress and its future. Mr Chavatia is the Director of Raj Embroidery, which is engaged in the manufacturing and exporting business of all varieties of embroidered fabrics and Mr Jariwala is the Chairman of Federation of Indian Art Silk Weaving Industry (FIASWI),

We started off by asking them the evolution of the embroidery sector in Surat, to which Mr Jariwala said, “Embroidery machines were in Surat even in 1970. Embroidered fabrics of Wintex Mills were very popular, however, jacquard fabrics were also very popular followed by design printing and fashions also change at intervals. Also economic factor also play important role”.

“Actually I am in this business since about only last four years, so I am not able to tell you too much about evolution of this industry, but in these last four years, this industry has grown as much as 8-10 times and is continuing to grow”, said Mr Haresh Chavatia.

Next we asked them the factors responsible for the growth of the sector, to which Mr Chavatia replied by saying, “Surat has a very strong base for growth of the industry. First of all, Surat is main supplier for synthetic fabrics, suit and sarees. Before embroidery industry took off in Surat, saree and dress material manufacturers used to send dyed or plain fabric to Kolkata, Varanasi and other places in India for embroidery work”.

“This cost used to be very high and not every small manufacturer could send fabric material for embroidery work outside Surat. But since the establishment of latest embroidery machines in Surat, it has become affordable and really cheap and now there is no need to send fabrics outside Surat. The embroidery done on machines is faster and design changes can be made with each piece”.

Mr Jariwala though had a completely different view point when he said, “Research in embroidery machines enabled many different items to be used as raw material. Hence many different varieties of embroidery patterns were evolved, leading to an explosive growth of the industry”.

Considering that each machine needs a very high volume of fabrics to feed them daily and there are nearly 50,000 such machines installed in Surat, we then asked them the obvious question as to where they source fabrics in such huge volumes, to which Mr Chavatia replied by saying, “Saree and dress material manufacturers from Surat, Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkatta and other parts of India send their material for embroidery work because of low cost and high productivity”.

More Textiles News - India...