Trade Talk

There comes a time of the year when students reach the fag end of their professional course and gear up to step into the real world. All set to do the same is the Garment Manufacturing Technology batch from the Northern India Institute of Fashion Technology (NIIFT),Mohali. But before a final adieu,the students of the two-year post graduate program had to give a final presentation of their diploma project to a jury culled from the industry. So this Thursday saw the likes of Rajesh Mehra,Director of Ginni and Jony; Col MS Khaira,vice president (development & HR),Winsome Knitwear; Shashi Kanwal,Marketing Manager,Groz-Beckert; textile and garment consultants Kishore Motwani and Munish Tyagi come on one platform to judge the students,who we are told have already been placed with the industry!

While the students gave their presentations that offered insight into analysis of market conditions,production competitiveness,creation of optimum conditions for production,quality and sampling,we sat down the trade players for an insider’s view of the industry in the wake of recession and the economic slump. “Frankly,I think better times lie ahead,” spoke Col (retd) Khaira of Winsome Knitwear. For a company majorly into exports,Khaira admits the domestic markets were a huge help when international bulk orders specially from the US declined. “Our clients are majorly in Europe and the US where the slowdown had the largest effect,” mentioned Khaira who is optimistic about the situation getting better.

When it comes to industry trends and a closer watch,no one knows it better than textile and garment consultant Kishore Motwani who has been instrumental in setting up umpteen garment manufacturing and allied units in the country. “Recession has had ripple effects across all trades including garment manufacturing specially where exports formed the bulk of work,” explained Motwani as he added,“but yes the domestic market balanced it out with retail industry growing so fast.” As for what the future holds,Motwani too sounds cheerful. “Globally,the situation is improving and we have a new government in place and I think things will settle down,” he smiled to say.

Elsewhere,Groz-Beckert’s head honcho Shashi Kanwal admits the signals of market recovery are “mixed”. “While positive news has come in,the industry is still playing cautious. Also the biggest problem the garment industry is facing today is that of liquidity but let’s hope for the best,” Kanwal wrapped it up saying.