WELVISION 2020 debates on trends in home textiles

Welspun India Ltd (WIL) launched a high-profile event — WELVISION 2020 — at its Welspun City, located at the Anjar (Kutch) region of Gujarat, wherein the major theme was "Innovation and Growth Perspective for Home Textile Business". The event, in which many stalwarts including overseas technology providers, academic toppers and key consultants participated, threw open major areas for discussion and debate. The conference was attended by about 80 delegates and over 200 employees from the Welspun Anjar unit.

In a grand auditorium, built to the memory of the current chairman BK Goenkas father, GR Goenka (Babuji), the event unfolded with a documentary on the founders life, followed by a Welspun corporate film. SS Aich, Director, Operations, WIL Anjar and AK Joshi, Director Operations, WIL Vapi, opened the meet with their inaugural speech. Aich made it clear what the purpose of the meet was. "To impart knowledge to our workers, make them more flexible and to make them aware of the challenges ahead so that they will be well prepared for the coming years," said Aich. "This event will create a roadmap for the future, especially for the home textile industry in India & abroad," said Joshi.

Rajesh R Mandawewala, Managing Director of WIL, took the podium and mesmerised the audience as a prolific speaker. "Change is the only constant. Look at Nokia, which held a share of 45 per cent in mobiles, has been floored by the Apples & Samsungs of today," he said, striking the keynote of this speech. "In Telecom, Sunil Mittal was the first to spot the opportunity and today Airtel is leading the revolution. He recognised change."

He traced in no uncertain terms the growth of Welspun since 1992. "In 1991, K Goenka, as a young man commissioned a study to find out whether any of the 14 big companies from abroad were willing to consider offshore manufacturing of textiles and partner with him. None of the big companies saw the opportunity, which the founder of this company saw. In 1994 production started at Welspun. Today, WIL has emerged as the largest manufacturer of terry towels not only in India, but in the world."

Then came Arvind Singhal of Technopak, who spoke on the "World & India: Some Trends & Implications for Welspun". Following him was Prashant Agarwal, Wazir Advisors Pvt Ltd, who gave a presentation on "Global trends in T&A industry: Impact on Indian companies".

This was followed by about 25 presentations, held in 3 Halls. The speakers included GV Aras, Director, S Rajendran, Vikas Saran, Laxmikhant Rathi, Shailesh Thakur and Avinash Naik, all of ATE Group, Murli Ramalingam of BASF, Merete Faergemend and Jayant Khera of Novozymes, VK Kothari & R Chattopadhyay of IIT Delhi, Sundaramurthy Krishnan of Intertech, Kent E Kvaal of Huntsman, Adam Jozwik of Goller, Horst Ros of Zimmer, HG Wroblowski of Monforts, Walter Leung of Fongs, Gerd Nasner of Texpa, Michel Niemeyer of Allma Volkmann, Peter Obrist of Karl Mayer.