Interview with Kartik Kapoor

The organised garment machinery industry is approximately ₹2,300 crore in size.

IIGM Private Limited has been at the forefront of bringing technology to the garment industry in India since 1979. We architecturally plan. We supply technology from cut to finish, and we keep over 15,000 factories running with parts replacement and service warranty all year round. IIGM represents over 30 world renowned brands for electrifying, cutting, sewing, unit productivity systems, software, embroidery, washing, finishing and spare parts. Each one of our partners has used our platform of 15 offices across several regions along with 200 sales staff and over 200 service staff to successfully promote their brands in India. Clearly, our service and spares support has allowed our customers to have less down time of their assets and increase their productivity substantially. The projects division helps customers design factories, improve efficiency and suggest cost effective machinery. Our sales team caters to machinery needs from cut to finish, keeping ROI as their highest priority. The electrical division provides high-tech solutions for safety and functionality, electrifying commercial malls and hotels as well. Most importantly, our service division extensively records and rectifies machinery in over 1,000 factories each month, while our spares division sources the highest quality parts from all over the world. The Indian Garment Growth Story (IGGS - as I'd like to call it) has just begun with several B-C type customers looking to professionalise their factories with trustworthy partners. Just as with the rest of India, automation and software in this space is now going through a revolution, and will continue to do so.

We are not a manufacturing company. Hence, there is no fixed percentage that is allocated towards R&D, because it is not needed. However, trading technology is skilfully keeping an eye out for the latest trends in design, innovation, safety and reliability. As service providers, we are constantly investing in our employees, our service network, our infrastructure and our customer relationship management systems. IIGM believes in exposing its employees to skilled training, trade shows, shop floors and travel to source the highest quantity products.

All garment factories are moving out of city limits due to labour laws and higher wages. The core areas for garmenting are Tirupur (knits); Bangalore (organised clothing); Gujarat (embroidery); Chennai (heavy duty machines); Ludhiana, Delhi and surrounding areas (high fashion) and Kolkata (undergarments).

We do not deal with used machinery, but the 'black market' is rather large, and we are in the process of organising this sector by bringing affordable technology to our customers' doorsteps.

IIGM and its sister concern companies have an annual turnover of $90 million. IIGM Private Limited, by itself, has seen a YOY growth of 30 per cent over the past three years.

We are investing in the Product Life Cycle Management space with the help of Gerber Technology. Designers can be walking the face of this earth sending designs to their shop floor, where patterns will be cut and samples will be finished within 48 hours. We are also investing in e-commerce, CRM, SAP and other internal technology to give our employees the power to make decisions and give our customers a better experience.

The unorganised spare parts' sector has made asset care a challenge for the industry. Most suppliers provide cheap solutions to get the machine running to reduce downtime, but this affects machine performance in the long term. We are constantly educating customers to use affordable yet reliable spares to maintain their machines. Asset care is critical for running a successful operation. Moreover, GST implementation will organise this market overnight. Software piracy is another big challenge, as the general thought process of a customer is to pay for the asset and expect the software that runs it to be free. We have authorised training centres all over the country to educate shop floor managers and operators to legalise. Exchange rates pose a large challenge for importers and exporters. The Indian currency has been rather strong lately (compared to other world currencies), but in the long term, it is still losing against the dollar. This fluctuation, many a time, is dramatic. Maybe, the government should peg its currency successfully like China does. Time will tell its story.