Vishwa Shukla
Vice President of Sales for South Asia X-Rite
Minion Yellow: The new colour off the block
In the global textile dyes and chemicals industry, the colour management industry remains largely unexplored and underestimated. Vishwa Shukla, Vice President of Sales for South Asia of X-Rite, a global colour management company, discusses this industry in an exclusive interview with Fibre2Fashion.com
What is the competition like in the colour management industry?
With the acquisition of Pantone in 2007, X-Rite has got a significant added value against its competitors. Since then, X-Rite Pantone has been introduced as the global leader in colour science and technology. X-Rite Pantone has the broadest portfolio in the industry with end-to-end colour management solutions including bench top instruments, handheld solutions and profile software for the entire workflow encompassing inspiration, production and end users. Non-contact solutions and light booths provide additional value to our customers. With our knowledge and portfolio, we are able to tailor and deliver the right solution for the specific needs of each individual customer.
Which are your most developed markets and which ones are coming up?
Pantone works with specifiers and designers that need physical and digital colour guides to be able to specify colour for new trends. X-Rite works with production sites and laboratories to formulate and control colour quality.
Nature provides the palette. Any R&D that has come out with a new colour or shade?
Pantone provides new colours regularly to extend the colour selection and give more options to designers. Pantone also publishes a Colour of the Year every year that inspires designers all around the world. The colour of the year 2015 is Marsala, and we just recently introduced Minion Yellow.
The colour industry is said to be a major pollutant. What new sustainable and environment-friendly technologies are coming in?
Our solutions help produce products in the right colour. Thus, our solutions are very important for waste reduction in production processes.
What happens with a company that does not use colour management solutions and works with several locations in the world?
First, the designer selects a colour and asks his provider located in another continent to send him samples. The communication of colour is often very difficult. People don't understand each other. Samples are sent back and forth until the designer validates the sample. At the formulation step, waste is common until the right recipe is found. At the production step, if you don't control the colour, a complete production run can be wasted if the customer rejects it. All our solutions are designed and manufactured to help textile companies make significant reduction in cost, time and waste. X-Rite and Pantone facilitate the communication of colour everywhere making sure your colour is properly formulated and controlled every time, from the first time.
What has been your growth percentage in the last two years? What is the target for the next two?
X-Rite and Pantone have grown significantly in the past two years. They are accepted and specified by major brands. Our customers can benefit from a global installation, support, training and service. We can expect a strong growth in all the industry segments.
Published on: 27/07/2015
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.
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