Preparing for the coming millennium

Chandigarh, Dec 5: Renowned experts who attended the Texcon'99 organised by the CII northern region in Chandigarh have expressed the vie...

Chandigarh, Dec 5: Renowned experts who attended the Texcon8217;99 organised by the CII northern region in Chandigarh have expressed the view that the quot;garment sector should be the growth sectorquot; for textile industry.

Himatsingka Seide Ltd chairman Dinesh Himatsingka who was present at Texcon observed that the garment sector should be the growth sector but it was value-addition that helps not only in increasing the average value realisation, but also in cementing the relationship between suppliers and retailers of textile industry. There was huge potential for Indian textile industry in export markets if industry learns to look beyond looking at textile as a quot;commodityquot;.

Himatsingka said that the real value-addition had been achieved in design and styling. The chairman of Himatsingka Seidge who has experience of marketing silk products in international markets made a strong case for value-addition.

Roland Berger Management Consultants managing director Karl Ulhrich who has conducted a study on Indiantextile industry in conjunction with the CII, which was presented at Texcon8217;99, observed that there was need for a garment-driven integrated industry. He said that technology would not be the only remedy to face challenges thrown open in the new millennium. Important was the issue of efficiency in using the technology. In India, there were a number of new investments and the efficiency in using this machinery might not be optimal.

Karl said that the problem with Indian manufacturers was that they follow the quot;me tooquot; approach. If a strategy was successful, then all manufacturers would start using it.

The experts like SP Oswal, PR Roy, group executive director, Arvind Mills Ltd, Arvind K Singhal, managing director, KSA Technopak, Shekhar Agarwal, vice-chairman and managing director LNJ Bhilwara group, Thomas Varghese, head marketing Grasims Industries Ltd who spoke on different issues connected with strategies for competitiveness, emerging trends and variables for enhancing competitiveness were of theview that a strategy for success was quot;collaborationquot; among various sectors.

India has the unique advantage of having a powerful sector which can provide short lots and also a mill sector for large lots of consistent fabrics. Another could be the successful establishment of an international brand from India. This would be more successful than spending a lot of money on the quot;Made in India-Brand Equity Fundquot;. Grasim Industries marketing head Thomas Varghese who presented his well researched paper on quot;Viscose fibre as a variable for enhancing competitiveness of Indian textile industryquot; observed that viscose was the first man-made fibre developed primarily with an objective of complimenting cotton and also addressing the limitations of cotton. It in fact is a purified form of cellulose similar to mercerised cotton.

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India has strong presence in the global VSF scenario and A V Birla group has presently emerged as the largest producer of viscose staple fibre in the world with its Thailand and Indonesianoperations. He stressed on the need to create awareness about the attributed of viscose like comfort, feel and hygiene top rewrite the definition of its market. The Indian producers of viscose are most cost effective and are fully integrated with their own captive, pulp and chemicals and can play a significant part in next millennium as an alternate for cotton.