“There has been spurt in exports of our denim range”

Prashant Group, established in 1975, is one of India’s prominent and fast growing Textile Machine manufacturing companies. The Group has co-operations with leading European and American textile machine manufacturing companies which bring an edge in updated technology and enhancement in product profile. Amoli Shah, Director of Prashant Group of Industries, speaks on the various products exported by the company, and its special characteristics.

How has been your company doing in exports in the last few years? What are the strategies used to develop these markets?
Prashant Group is India’s premier engineering group offering technology-enabled, customised solutions in weaving preparation segment.

Our exports have been very encouraging in the past few years. We have always focused on providing world-class products to the global market. Due to technology, quality and reliability, our products are very well-accepted in the world market. By appointing agents and participating in various exhibitions across the globe, we have made our reach easier in the international market.

Which are the countries to which you have been exporting your products? Which are the new countries you have recently made breakthrough?
We are exporting our products to mainly Asia, south east Asia, South America, Africa and part of Europe. We have our presence in over 45 countries. In recent times, we have made a major breakthrough in countries like Taiwan, the UK and Germany.

What are the various products that are being exported? What are their special characteristics/USPs?
In recent times, there has been a significant growth in our exports of various machines such as sectional warpers, sizing and warping machines. There has also been a spurt in exports of our denim range of machines, which includes indigo sheet and rope dyeing, ball warpers, long chain beamers, and beam-to-cone winder machines. We offer the latest ‘Nitrogen chamber’ technology in our dyeing range, which enhances dye penetration to produce denim fabric with deeper shades, with a less number of dye trough. The demand for our new-generation robotic sectional warper is also growing rapidly in the global market. Our machine Model PB-9 is world’s fastest robotic sectional warper with features like automatic lease insertion system, endless warping and highest productivity. We carefully select only the best-in-class components for all our machines to ensure its reliability and productivity. We always strive for continuous development. Our reputation is built on several strong values like innovation, quality, automation and service. Key to our strong position in exports as well as in domestic market is passion for exceeding customer expectations.

Are there cheaper imports hurting sales in the domestic market? Substantiate with details. How are you meeting these challenges from competition?
As the textile industry diversified the production line, Prashant Group has also expanded its product range to suit changing requirement of the natural/man-made fibre as well as the filament sector. Our benchmarking is only for top-class quality products and have moved upmarket rather than competing in highly cluttered low-quality, low-price market.

Our market share is not affected by cheaper imports. Our vision and innovation propels our customers as leaders in their field. Our service back has been excellent to keep our customers delighted and our repeat purchase ratio has remained extremely high. Due to continuous improvement in technology and automation, we have increased our market share substantially in domestic as well as export markets.

In textile machinery and accessories exports, what are India’s weaknesses and strengths? What is your recipe for the industry and the Government to promote textile machinery and accessories exports.
The global demand of textile machinery and accessories are rising due to growing demand of textile industry. India is strategically located from most of major textile and apparel producing countries and India has good potential to explore global opportunities and tap global market.

First of all, proper implementation of cost engineering is essential to win the business. The state-of-the-art infrastructure for R&D to satisfy weaver’s technological, energy saving and environmental needs, is inevitable to fight competition from European manufacturers. The machinery manufacturers also need to redesign, upgrade and retool their manufacturing operations from time to time. Joint ventures with machinery manufacturers from developed countries also can be looked into for technology transfer, rather than offering machines with old technology and cheap prices.

The textile machinery industry has to be encouraged to invest in technology and modernise itself to meet the demand for state-of-the-art machines. It is, therefore, essential that a technology upgradation fund (TUF) for this sector be set up.

In the highly competitive global market for textile machinery, the consumer preference will tilt towards quality, productivity, price advantage and trouble-free performance.