Schoch weaves blueprint to cover more accessories

Nearly a century-old Italian company manufacturing world famous reeds for looms made a blueprint in 2009 to lay the foundation for an Indian facility… and Schoch Reeds India was born! In just a matter of nine years, the dream matured into a fully-grown company in Kolhapur, supplying reeds of same, unfailing quality to not only Indian looms but also to some major textile-producing countries. Since 2009, there was no looking back for Schoch Reeds in India. Over the years, the company has been manufacturing quality-precision reeds ever since.

During ITJ’s recent visit to Schoch Reeds’ factory in Kolhapur, Kuldeep Pareek, who recently took over the helm as General Manager – Sales & Marketing of Schoch Reeds India, discussed the company’s plans to introduce three new products, apart from supplying reeds. At ITMA, Schoch Reeds plans to launch drop wires, heald frames and heald wires. “We, at Schoch Reeds [now] plan to cover the entire spectrum of accessories for the weaving segment,” proudly says Pareek.

3 new products for ITMA!

Heald frames: The heald frames are made with high strength anodised aluminum alloy and with stainless steel rods. Available for all type of shuttleless looms and carbon fibre reinforcement availble also for high speed looms. Lateral supports are designed for higher loom speeds and suitable for all major loom manufacturers. Also custom-made solutions are available.

He adds, “We will supply all types of heald frames from the existing design available in the market. For manufacturing heald frames, Schoch is in the process to set up heald frame manufacturing facility in India. Assembling and repairing facility will be available from July onwards.”

For heald frames, Schoch Reeds has collaborated with Schroeder, who are in this business since long time. “So, we will provide heald frames in name of Schoch & Schroder,” said Pareek.

Heald wires: Manufacturing of heald wires require more precision-ness. The heald wires are available in J – C shape. Also custom-made solutions are available. It is suitable for all present automatic drawing-in machines, and are exclusively made with tempered stainless steel quality SUS420J2 for the demanding weaving industry.

On manufacturing heald wires, Pareek says, “We are currently starting with manufacturing one type of heald wires, and may be in another year or so, we will come out with the all version.”

Drop wires: The droppers are manufactured with a new and innovative technology. It has an extremely smooth finishing and is ideal for delicate yarns. It will be suitable for all drawing-in machines, and exclusively manufactured with tempered stainless-steel quality SUS420J2. “We have already started manufacturing drop wires in India. Custom-made solutions can be manufactured on demand,” says Pareek.

“We will be having the advantage of manufacturing reeds in-house in Kolhapur itself. The new products will focus on better delivery time, and on providing quality products within India,” adds Pareek.

On USPs of these new products, Pareek had this to say: “The main USP of these products will be the delivery time and the raw materials used. We are using quality-graded steel, which is imported. The steel used is very hard. For these products, finishing is very necessary. So we are using the best technology of finishing. Pricing wise, it won’t be very much cheaper, but it will be very competitive. As you know, India is a very cost-conscious market, and this is the very reason we are manufacturing these products in-house. We will try to give the best quality to customer and not the cheap quality. Quality will be the main forte of these products. The other main advantage will be the aftersales service. The customer will get the full technical support from the local level itself.”

The revolutionary eReed concept

eReeds are energy-saving reeds that was launched a few years back. The textile mills in India suffer from very high power cost. In many States, there is severe power crisis hence mills are forced to invest in captive power, which has further increased the cost. It is in this context that Schoch Reeds has launched a new range of reeds, which offer significant savings in energy cost. Pareek says, “We also introduced eReed concept, which is doing really well in India. eReeds are basically the energy-saving reeds. The concept has already become popular, and there are customers who want only eReeds.”

Says Pareek, “In eReeds, there is different shape of nozzle, and by this, we can reduce the energy consumption around 10-20 per cent. At the customer end, it will save their power. We are supplying a kit for energy saving – eReed and a nozzle. The customers are getting good advantage of this product. In fact, many customers have written it to us that it has helped them save around 10 to 20 per cent energy. Most of them prefer eReeds today. We are the only reed supplier who provides re-calibration, reconditioning and repairing of reeds, and air audit to customer place. We are trying to get a sizeable market share in repairing also.”

On air audit, he says that our technician visits the customer and provides a possible solution. They can study their power consumption, and install our eReeds and can compare the energy consumption between eReeds and the existing one. This is our main USP and the customer like us for this. He adds, “Our technical team assists airjet weaver with a professional air consumption and loss audit. Analysis from the main compressor till the airjet looms. We supply a detailed report with clear indication on potential CFM savings. Collected experience proves a potential saving.”

Staying ahead of the competition

On tackling the competition from Chinese and Indian markets, Pareek had this to say: “The competition will be always there – whether from China or from India. I am not saying that their products are of lesser quality. But at Schoch Reeds, our main focus will be on providing high-quality products to the customers. We will be manufacturing these products in-house. In that way, we can have the control on quality. We have set up checkpoints after each process in our production following the TQM model to control quality. We will strengthen our sales force. By that way we can fight competition.”

“We maintain our quality standards as per the ISO norms, and have received the latest ISO certificate for the same. It is the mark on our quality parameters,” said Pareek.

He says, “See the reeds business is like a urgent business. If you find any company requiring reed, it will be always urgent. This is the biggest challenge we face; supplying reeds in a specific time period, which could be as less as one or two days. Other challenge is to deliver the reeds in fastest delivery time.”

Going forward…

“After Barcelona, we want to focus more on new product says Pareek. “Right now, our main focus is only on reeds and the other three new products. May be in future, we may come out with other products too. But right now, there are no plans as such. We want to focus more on quality especially in heald wires. We want to increase our markets for these three products also.”