With foreign technologies getting expensive, the industry will look at India for manufacturing

GV Aras, Director of A.T.E. Enterprises Pvt Ltd, has in all 30 years of experience in textile and textile engineering industry. He has been with A.T.E. since more than 25 years. He joined A.T.E. in 1981 as a Junior Sales and Service Engineer and rose to attain the position of Director – Textile Engineering Group (TEG) of A.T.E. Enterprises Private Limited. As the head of TEG, Aras is responsible for the total functioning of the TEG, its profitability, customer relationship, business strategy and growth.

In an exclusive interaction with the Editor of ITJ, GV Aras gives a SWOT analysis on the Indian textile machinery industry, and the A.T.E.´s plans for ITMA 2015.

What do you think is the status of our textile machinery, parts & accessories industry — a SWOT analysis from your side.
In ginning and spinning sectors, the Indian textile machinery makers are quite strong as far as technology is concerned and they can certainly fulfill the technical requirement of the sector. However the situation is totally different for weaving and knitting wherein majority of the machinery is imported. In weaving preparation and processing, there are some Indian machinery makers who can supply good technology machines but not for the complete range. Here as well many machines are imported from Europe. In garment sector as well practically majority of machines get imported from Japan, China or Europe. The biggest weakness I see for the industry is the lack of R&D or innovation as well as slower pace of technology absorption. The biggest opportunity lies in the substitution for the large volume of imports if technologies are made available by local manufacturers.

What are your company´s contribution (by way of technology & products) to the textile industry? And what are the plans for the future?
A.T.E. group offers complete end-to-end solution across the entire textile value chain and that is unique. We offer best technologies in each segment either from our European suppliers who are market leaders or from the JVs with some of them in India. We represent technology leaders like Truetzschler (JV in India), Saurer group, Karl Mayer group and Fongs group, which offer the best contemporary technologies. We also have large team of service engineers and technologists to assist customers in optimisation of the processes and get best out of the machines. Training of the people on our machines is a priority and for that on the job training at the customer place is organised. With Karl Mayer, we have established an academy for training our customers. We also have many in-house products like spinning components (TeraSpin), ETP (A.T.E. Envirotech), antistatic solutions (Valence), remote monitoring solutions (EcoAxis) and comfort conditioning (HMX) catering to the textile segment.

How has your company been faring in the export markets for your machinery? And what are your expectations at the ITMA 2015?
Some of our in-house products like spindles and drafting components from TeraSpin as well as ETP plants from A.T.E. Envirotech are exported across the world including Europe and the US respectively. These technologies have received very good response from the global markets. Both these group companies have their stalls at ITMA and we will be able to showcase our technologies and affordable solutions to the global world.

What is your wish-list for the textile machinery industry and also the Government to make the industry a leader internationally?
Textile machinery industry holds big promise to become a global hub of manufacturing in view of the growing local market within India and nearby countries. Moreover