Santex Rimar Group eyes India with new venture

With over 4,000 machines sold and still counting, Santex Rimar Group floats its own Indian venture to penetrate deeper and grab more in this emerging market.

“Tradition is our strength, and innovation our mission,” proclaims Santex Rimar Group, an ambitious technology provider and partner for knitted, woven fabrics, technical textiles, nonwovens and green solutions. The Group has set its eyes firmly on the growing Indian market by floating the Santex Rimar India on the occasion of India-ITME 2016. The Group has spread its wings to cover weaving also by acquiring SMIT. Santex Rimar Group is upbeat about India and to come closer to the Indian customers, it has set up its Indian venture with offices in Coimbatore and Mumbai.

“It’s a big number… 30,000 machines around the world for the Santex Rimar Group,” declares Gallucci Stefano, CEO, Santex Rimar Group. He goes on to say: “Indian textile and apparel and also the technical textile markets are projected to grow at a CAGR respectively of 9 per cent and 8 per cent from 2013 to 2023. In this scenario, customers need to have a direct relationship with us and we want to fulfill all their needs faster and better. We are recruiting experienced talents who can be new proud Group members looking forward to enhancing customer relations.” “We have already installed more than 4,000 machines all over India and we want to keep growing together with our customers. We want to be sound, nimble and responsive at the same time,” he adds.

Jude Britto heads the Indian unit. The objective of this grandiose plan is to ensure rapid decision-making in key strategic area and synergies of integration, and the Santex Rimar Group feels that a direct presence of the Group sales and service is the need of the hour in India to increase accountability and ensure continuous support, improved quality, more efficiency for customers. Santex Rimar India facilities are based in Coimbatore and Mumbai. Products portfolio of the Group includes Santex, Sperotto Rimar, Cavitec, Isotex, Solwa and SMIT.

The Group is a technology partner for knitted, woven fabrics, technical textiles, nonwovens and green solutions: Cavitec and Isotex lead the technical textiles machinery market; Santex and Sperotto Rimar produce machines for textile finishing; Solwa provides eco-friendly machinery for water treatment, food dehydration, agribusiness sector and industrial waste management. With the entrance of SMIT, the Group has recently become a solution provider also in the weaving sector.

Says Stefano: “Santex Rimar Group stands for reliability and excellent automation. We guarantee an excellent level of competence at each stage of the product’s lifecycle: our machines are made with competence, passion, commitment and high level of research. We provide the most efficient technology in respect to productivity, energy savings and sustainability, low maintenance costs and state of the art production processes.”

The six companies that form the strong pillars of the group represent some of the emerging market segments of the textile industry. In its 78 years of mergers and acquisition since its establishment in 1938, the group emerged stronger year after year with the final consolidation with the takeover of SMIT taking place only in 2016.

Globally recognised as a forerunner in weaving technology, SMIT is a manufacturer of weaving machines established in 1938 and renowned for its high standard levels of innovation, productivity and versatility, ensuring competitiveness throughout a large variety of applications. The technology characterising SMIT’s product range includes weaving machines with rapier weft insertion for home textiles, garments, terry towels and customised solutions for the production of special technical fabrics.

SMIT is ready now, says Simone Rancan, Chief Executive Officer of SMIT, who heads the Weaving Division. “After the Santex Rimar Group acquired SMIT, first delivery of looms happened in October this year and it was delivered to a Korean company on time. The transfer of production to the new site has been completed and also transfer of stock is almost complete. All the key technology members are on board. By the end of 2016, the entire supply chain would have been in place.

Besides, spare parts worth over Euro 1 million have already been delivered. The backlog is being cleared and SMIT clients are well on the way to recovery in production,” says Rancan.

Says Rancan: “SMIT’s focus for 2017 will be on the GS940. Besides, R&D is feverishly working on a revised and updated model of the rapier machine to be released in 2018. More R&D will be taken up and the target date is ITMA 2019, by which time new models will be rolled out.”

Heinz Michel, President, Santex Rimar AG, who is the Head of Textile Finishing Division, says that the group will focus on treatment of open width fabrics and tubular knitted fabrics. “India has full potential. Santashrink Progress, Santacompact-RD, Santasynpact for open width treatment, and Santastretch, Santashrink Standard and Santaspread for tubular knitted fabrics hold good scope for the Indian market. For decatising and scouring, Santex Rimar is a leader with many proven machines. H&M, Zara, Fruit of the Loom, Burberry, Tommy Hilfiger, ESPIRIT and Adidas are some the brands that have put their faith in these finishing machines,” says Michel.

Santex Rimar Group is present in various countries with four factories and more than 10,000 customers based in almost 150 countries throughout the world to whom it offers specific solutions and services in order to become their reference point of excellence. Being close to local markets and employing local manpower allows it to be competitive and to offer its heritage of craftsmanship to global trade. It is capable of adapting to different cultures and languages and its knowhow enables it to understand and fulfil the needs of its global customers to whom it offers not only high quality machines but also good and punctual after-sales service.

Santex is at the forefront of technology for textile finishing of knitted fabrics such as cotton, blended cotton and viscose. The goal of Santex is maximising performances at low energy to achieve low residual shrinkage, soft-hand feel and luster on surfaces of textiles. Many of the most world famous fashion houses are relying on the knowhow of Santex which was founded in Switzerland in 1982.

Globally recognised as a forerunner in weaving technology, SMIT is a manufacturer of weaving machines established in 1938 and renowned for its high standard levels of innovation, productivity and versatility, ensuring competitiveness throughout a large variety of applications. The technology characterising SMIT’s product range includes weaving machines with rapier weft insertion for home textiles, garments, terry towels and customised solutions for the production of special technical fabrics.

Sperotto Rimar is known to be a leading innovator and manufacturer of textile finishing machines. Founded in Italy in 1949, Sperotto Rimar is specialised in machinery for the finishing of fabrics, both natural and artificial. Sperotto Rimar is at the heart of the most demanding market for high-quality textiles with the goal of developing innovative finishing processes for knitted and woven fabrics.

Cavitec is the world leader in prepreg systems for composite products for aerospace, automotive, wind-power industries and for resin impregnation of carbon, kevlar or glass fibre. All leading prepreg manufacturers work with Cavitec lines and each plant is tailor-made to specific customer requirements.

Caratsch AG, founded in 1962, and Villars AG, founded in 1983, merged in 1996 as Cavitec, the premier supplier of machines and plants for coating, laminating and impregnating.

With more than 50 years of experience, Isotex offers to its global customers not only a wide range of products but also innovative and customised solutions. Isotex was founded in Italy in 1957 as a manufacturer of textile machines. The continuous development of advanced coating and laminating system based on wet coat technology for synthetic leather, airbags and other technical applications, has earned Isotex a worldwide reputation.

Solwa technology offers green innovative solutions in different fields of water treatment for human and agricultural needs and for food and waste dehydration processes using and producing renewable energies. Solwa boosts sustainability and social responsibility, promoting a business always based on environmental protection and prosperity of future generations.