I think what the Indian entrepreneurs should be looking at is technical textiles
Santex Rimar Group is one of the leading players in the world market of textile finishing, technical textiles and green technologies for water treatment and drying processes. The Group is a machine manufacturer and a technology partner for knitted, woven and nonwoven fabrics and green solutions. Stefano Galluci, Group CEO, Santex Rimar gets candid about their innovative technologies and solutions.
How is the fair going so far?
The number of people was quite weak at the beginning, but then the crowd picked up.
What kind of impact will automation and robotics have on the textile and apparel manufacturing industries in Asia, especially countries like India, China, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka?
The Internet of Things (IoT) is a way of organising your production, more than anything else. I have not seen companies incorporating this technology around the globe. IoT is more of a philosophical or engineering approach, because something like this was already present in this market with machines that have been speaking or giving data. As a group, we have a very big project on the IoT or artificial intelligence supplied to the machines which will be made available in the market in the next one and a half or two years. It is an artificial intelligence programme for all machines.
How has demonetisation affected the textile industry?
We have not seen it yet, but there will be some effects. The number of visitors has not reduced. The companies need to grow anyway, even if there's demonetisation.
What are your expectations from the ongoing India ITME 2016?
We are here to close several deals for which we had scheduled meetings. In general, to understand how the Indian market is moving. It looks like it is moving well. There is big opportunity for India in textiles and technical textiles. Some entrepreneurs and industries are moving forward.
Which latest technologies and solutions are you displaying at the fair?
We are presenting the new addition to our organization, Santex Rimar India. We are hiring new talent and looking for more people for it. It is headquartered in Coimbatore and we have people in Mumbai and Bangalore too. This direct presence of the Group sales and service in the country has the goal to increase accountability and ensure continuous support, improved quality and more efficiency to customers.
We are not displaying machines but we have several new enhancements that we are presenting to the Indian markets. There is the fact that we are taking back Smit - the looms brand - to India. We are presenting it to India. This brand had stopped several years ago and we bought the company and have restarted it. This has been welcomed by the Indian customers. A lot of them have come here to talk about it and understood how to get looms. Then, we have technical textiles and many requests for nonwoven machinery.
What are the top 3 innovations that you witnessed at India ITME apart from Santex?
Companies are still working on the new improvements. Something that is not nice that I have seen is making machines specifically less expensive for this kind of market. Because what India needs are good machines and not inexpensive ones. If you look at inexpensive machines, you are also looking at lower quality and I don't think it is the best thing to invest in.
What are the challenges that you face while working in India?
India is a price sensitive market. Performance and quality are expected at smarter prices, especially shifting from premium products to value products. Moreover, customers have problems of getting money from the bank and this represents a risk of slowing down the economy.
How big is the market for all your machinery in India? At what rate is it growing?
Indian T&A and technical textile market are projected to grow at a CAGR respectively of 9 per cent and 8 per cent from 2013 to 2023. India is the second largest market for us after China. China is still moving, but India is growing faster.
Which are your major markets apart from India?
China, Bangladesh, and Turkey are our major markets besides India.
Which verticals in the textile industry does India need to revamp with latest machines?
I think what the Indian entrepreneurs should be looking at is technical textiles, from military applications to civil applications to geotextile. That's a big market and it takes capital to get into it and the market here is using a lot of technical textiles. India is importing a lot of it. It is a big opportunity for local market and for exports.
When you get into this type of technology or process, what you need are experienced people. Here you have good fantastic institutes that are working on the software, the knowledge is there. You need to get technology - European or Indian. I think they should step into this and not let only big corporations do this. Big Indian corporations are doing this and making a lot of money with technical textiles, because it is a way of adding value to textiles. I think Indians should be investing in this segment.
If you had to summarise your experience at India ITME 2016 so far in one line what would you say.
It has been pretty good.
Which markets are you planning to explore?
Ethiopia, Vietnam, Iran and Middle East are markets we plan to explore.
How would you describe the technologies used in India versus its contemporaries like China, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Indonesia?
There are two different types of consumers. There are large, international companies who have invested in technologies and are growing very fast. Then there are small companies, most of which are not using state-of-the-art technologies. I think their problem is funding. We can help most of them, not only with technology, but also with their business models by examples. We have sold some 30 thousand machines and have customers all over the world. We have small and big customers almost all over the world in all sectors. We watch the best practices and see how they generate their revenues and that is something we can share with other customers.
What are your expectations from the next edition?
With such potential, here, exhibitors are willing to invest but they need to have proper infrastructures.
Which other fairs do you plan to attend in 2017?
Next year we will participate in almost 20 trade shows all over the globe. We plan to attend several shows in Europe, Asia, and India as well.
Published on: 04/01/2017
DISCLAIMER: All views and opinions expressed in this column are solely of the interviewee, and they do not reflect in any way the opinion of Fibre2Fashion.com.
20230103183907.png)
