Bullish on future growth prospects
Truetzschler, the German leader, has been supplying textile machinery in India since 1920, and it set up its first plant in the country in 1978. To get a better perspective of its Indian operations, The Textile Magazine met Mr. Joseph Thomson, Managing Director at Truetzschler India Pvt. Ltd., for a detailed discussion on a range of issues of importance to the group as well as its valued customers.
Excerpts:
What are your expectations of the Indian and global markets in 2015?
We are quite optimistic that the global as well as the Indian economy are recovering from a prolonged crisis. In India, things look a little brighter on account of a stable government that has assumed power at the Centre and the Prime Minister’s ‘Make-in-India’ programme aimed at greater flow of foreign investment into the country. Hence we are looking forward to a very good 2015.
How do you see growth prospects and opportunities in the Indian textile industry?
Gujarat is emerging a big market for textile machinery, and cotton ginners from the Rajkot area are already foraying into yarn spinning since last few years. A similar trend may be followed by cotton ginners from other States like Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Telengana and Maharashtra. They will likely follow the Gujarat model and explore opportunities in spinning.
On the other hand, even the existing spinning mills with older generation machines are looking for replacement with new generation machines to increase the operational efficiencies. The trend has already begun. For instance, South India-based mills have started replacing their old machines with new ones.
We expect that more investments from new entrepreneurs as well as the existing textile mills will prove most beneficial for the Indian textile machinery sector, particularly players like Truetzschler.
India will remain one of the most prominent textile markets, and the Truetzschler management has immense faith in the Indian textile industry. The proof lies in the fact that Truetzschler is serving the Indian market since 1920. The group is appreciative of the skilled workforce in India, providing insights into future developments at Truetzschler. Outside Germany, the group’s Indian facility is the biggest in the world.
What are your views of the Make-in-India push by the government, particularly with reference to the textile industry?
It will prove a very good platform. Currently India is globally recognised for its IT industry. However, the Make-in-India campaign has the potential to make manufacturing industries, including the textile sector, recognised for their capabilities.
Secondly, India is emerging as the biggest global cotton producer. This has the hidden potential to lift the Indian textile sector to greater heights. Additionally, with both the world and Indian economies on a revival path, the Make-in-India campaign has come at the right time. It is expected to make policies investment friendly. So, one can expect European textile machinery manufacturers and those from the other regions to set up operations India which is known for its skilled and competent workforce, a virtue well recognised by foreign investors.
How is 2014 for Truetzschler India?
The year 2014 was quite good. In January 2014, Truetzschler India achieved a milestone by delivering its 10,000th carding machine to Vardhman Industries. It was handed over by Mr. Henrich Truetzschler, our Managing Partner, to Mr. S.P. Oswal, Chairman of Vardhman Industries.
How is Truetzschler India preparing to take advantage of the emerging opportunities?
Truetzschler India has a world-class manufacturing facility in Ahmedabad, and it invested over Rs. 100 crores in the past five years to modernise as well as expand capacity in anticipation of better days ahead. In the process, we have procured state-of-the-art machinery which will definitely give us an edge, as we will now be able to deliver machineries at shorter lead times to customers. We also introduced the Lean Manufacturing concept, whereby parts or components needed to produce a machine are made or brought on the same day.
We are manufacturing a complete range of spinning preparatory machines from blowroom to combers, and we have a sizable level of local components in our machines. However, some critical high performance components, electronics and controls are still produced only at our headquarters in Germany.
In 2012, Truetzchler developed a comber jointly with Toyota. How is this project progressing?
Truetzchler had launched a high-technology comber which was jointly developed with Toyota. The TCO 12 comber is manufactured at our Ahmedabad plant was commercially launched in 2013. It has been primarily catering to export markets, to begin with. We plan to take orders for the Indian market from the beginning of 2015.
The TCO 12 runs on a breakthrough servo drive technology compared to the conventional gear technology, which results in higher speed realisation and consistent quality. It also has “Count Control” and “Combing Optimiser” features giving Comber TCO 12, a technological edge over other similar machines.
How is the TC 11 card performing in the Indian market?
Truetzchler introduced the TC 11 wide-width carding machine in 2011. We have a few installations, and one of them is a really big one with 40 nos. of machines in one of the reputed mills in central India. Card TC 11 is high technology and state-of-the-art product, presently manufactured only in Germany. In future, we plan to produce this card in India in due course of time.
The offer of excellent after-sales service accounts for the success of any machinery. What about the level of service support provided by Truetzschler India to its customers?
Truetzschler India has full-fledged service and spares centres in Ahmedabad, Coimbatore, Guntur and Chandigarh where we have facilities even to repair electronic components. We have over 80 service engineers and also resident engineers located in various towns and cities in India.
Apart from this, Truetzschler India has a concept called ‘Service-on-Wheels’ which it introduced way back in 2010-11. In fact, it is the first to introduce this concept in the textile machinery sector in India is meant mainly for card clothing business. For the ‘Service-on-Wheels’ concept, we have mobile van equipped with the complete workshop equipment for servicing card clothing, repairing kits and essential spares. We provide doorstep services with these mobile vans, highly benefiting mills that cannot afford to buy equipment to service carding machines. Currently, Truetzschler is providing this service in Chandigarh and Coimbatore, covering a number of new spinning mills being set up in Gujarat. It has plans to have one more service centre in Ahmedabad.
Another service concept we offer is the wire management system, through which we urge customers to maintain and change the card clothing in time, if needed. We also keep a stock of spares for our older generation machines to service our valued customers.
Truetzschler also markets nonwovens machineries. Could you highlight some of the products and technologies? How do you see the market in India evolving for nonwovens?
Truetzschler is amongst the very few companies offering various nonwoven technologies like spunlace, needle-punching, thermal bonding and chemical bonding applications under one roof. We have manufacturing plant in Duelmen and Egelsbach in Germany for producing the entire range of nonwovens.
Adoption of nonwovens-made-products is based on economic development and increase in GDP. With time, hygiene products and the road building industry will drive sales of nonwovens and geotextiles respectively and those who are already in the business will definitely get a first-mover advantage. There is growing awareness of the nonwovens business, and companies like us are creating awareness among traditional textile companies. However, I feel that the segment will take time to come into its own.
The Central Government too has proved helpful in setting up ‘Centres of Excellence’ (COE) which will help new entrepreneurs to research and develop sample fabrics on machines installed at these centres, before they set up a full-fledged unit. Truetzschler has recently installed a most modern nonwovens line at DKTE College in Ichalkaranji, which too encourages entrepreneurs to research and develop samples.
How important are developing and marketing environmentally-friendly technologies for the Truetzschler Group?
Truetzschler is part of the ‘Blue Competence’ Alliance initiated by VDMA in Germany which by itself pushes Truetzschler to adopt sustainable practices of production and also produce energy-efficient machines. Most of the Truetzschler machines are highly energy efficient, and we have been able to reduce energy consumption by around 30-35 per cent in our latest models as compared to the older ones.