SMPL completes a century of Truetzschler cards

In
a posh modern building in Bhopal, India, a man is about to enter inside his
office. At the entrance the man takes off his shoes and bends down to touch the
ground as is the tradition while entering the temples. This sign is enough to
know that traditional Indian culture and values are followed here in this
company. The gentleman is Sudhir Kumar Agrawal, Chairman of Sagar Group. He
said, “I always had firm belief in our strong value system at Sagar Group. Our
biggest strength and treasure is our people.”

Sudhir
Agrawal, a first-generation entrepreneur, with dynamic leadership, commitment
and integrity as core values has taken the Sagar group to greater heights.

Starting
from a humble beginning by having a one room office, today Sagar Group is the
fastest growing conglomerate in Madhya Pradesh, India. For more than 35 years
Sagar Group continues as a dynamic and vibrant entity. They started with their
first real estate project in 1983. Later in 2001 they ventured into the
education field by starting the Sagar Public School. At present they are
successfully operating three leading schools, three engineering institutes, one
B-school and one pharmacy institute. They also have a rice milling unit near
Bhopal

In
2012 Sagar Group ventured into the textile business by setting up a spinning
mill Sagar Manufactures. In this project Sudhir Agrawal, a visionary person, was
ably assisted by his son, Siddharth Agrawal who is the Managing Director, a civil
engineering graduate from (NIT) Bhopal. He said, “We are working in diversified
sectors like infrastructure, education, food and textiles, all these contribute
towards the basic needs of any civilisation. So, when we started the spinning
mill, we required the best technology available and Truetzschler fit the bill
perfectly”.

The
man at the helm of affairs at the mill is Vinod Kumar Jain, Executive Director,
SMPL. Jain is associated with the spinning mill project right from its
inception in early 2012. Jain is a well-known technocrat in India and leaves no
scope for any ambiguity when it comes to quality. He said, “At Sagar we strive
for optimum utilisation of technology and resources, targeting quality
production with an aim of exceeding customer expectations”. He added that “Our
workers are well versed with the Truetzschler technology and therefore all our
four units comprising of 150,000 spindles have Truetzschler blow-room and
cards.” In fact, he happily said “We have completed a Century of Truetzschler
cards and at present we have 115 Truetzschler cards running in our four units.”

SMPL
believes in opting world class technology with less expensive automation which
should last long in order to remain competitive in the market on all fronts and
training and development is the key skill used for the optimum use of
technology and controls. We are hiring both male and females and all are
working shifts/have good dormitories and a beautiful campus for employees
accommodating more than 1200 people with all facilities which industry needs.

At
present SMPL makes about 85 tonnes of yarn per day super quality yarn. 65 per
cent of this is for export market and rest caters to the domestic demand. Count
varies between Ne 20s and 40s which include 100 per cent cotton combed fancy
slub yarns, BCI cotton yarns, combed compact yarn for weaving and knitting
including grey knitted fabrics normal cotton and lycra blend.

Regarding
the recent COVID-19 crisis Siddharth Agrawal said “The recent business
environment has affected international as well as domestic demand. Weak
consumer sentiments and the fear of the virus led to a little bad financial
year for us also. But now after a sluggish start the textile industry in India
is showing an upward trend and we at SMPL along with our strengths we have
already consolidated our manufacturing operations.”

SMPL
leads all their products in a niche market where customers demand very high
quality and they are striving further to raise the benchmark since inception.

When
asked about future expansion plans, Vinod Jain said that they are expanding by
42,000 spindles this year and the order for further 22 latest wider width
Truetzschler TC 15 cards is already placed.