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office with a dedicated sales & service
set-up. Each regional office is
self-sufficient, in the sense that it is
equipped with adequate manpower
to promptly attend to sales and service
calls. By making frequent visits
to customers, the rapport with them
is getting better, making it easier to
understand the market trend. We
could also explore more and more
new markets during the four-year
period.
TM: How many Picanol machines
are currently in operation
in India and how many market locations
Please name some of the
leading company customers and
the major projects that you’ve executed
for them so far
KV: We have more than 15,000
machines running all over the country,
covering organised and mid-segment
market areas like Ichalkaranji,
Bhiwandi, Bhilwara, etc. Almost all
major textile groups in India have
installed Picanol weaving machines.
Some top customers are Bombay
Rayon, Alok industries, Vardhman
Textiles, Nahar Industrial Enterprises,
Bharat Vinay Mills, LNJ Denim,
NSL Group, etc.
TM: Can you throw some light
on the weaving segment of the textile
industry in India – the market
size, the growth witnessed in the
last few years and the major players
in the segment
KV: At the moment, weaving is
only in its formative stage as compared
to spinning. There are now
only a handful of textile units with
integrated plant facilities for spinning,
weaving, processing and knitting.
Though the opportunities for
conversion from spinning to weaving
are enormous, it is difficult to
predict the market size as the growth
of the weaving segment would depend
on many factors.
The global team of Picanol Group
A large number of spinners can
go for value addition, which implies
opening up of the weaving market.
Most powerloom units are getting
themselves ready for modernisation.
With policy support from the Government
to go in for new machines
with 10 per cent capital subsidy, the
mid-segment markets will prefer
new machines to imported secondhand
machines. With the ongoing
modernisation, even corporates from
the organised sector would replace
even 10-year-old machines with new
ones.
TM: What are the brand weaving
products and solutions offered
by the company in the Indian market
What is its current market
share
KV: Thanks to our loyal customers
and the repeat orders from them,
we enjoy a leading market share in
airjet and rapier technology. We released
our latest airjet technology,
OmniplusSummum, at ITMA 2011
in Barcelona and are happy that the
product attracted most customer attention
at our booth. Basically we
focus on lower consumption in order
to reduce the cost of operation
for the customer, higher speed, use
of the latest hardware & software
technology for our control station,
etc. The star attraction among the
weaving machines was the OmniplusSummum.
We also released the
new Rapier loom OPTIMAX with
its potential for 540 cm wider width
looms, as well as a positive guided
gripper version, aiming at extending
our range of applications in techni-
44 | The Textile Magazine jANUARY 2012