Business

India’s Top Denim Producer Arvind Installs Nation’s First Monforts Eco Line

India’s number one denim producer Arvind has installed the nation’s first Monforts Eco Line for faster production, major savings in energy and greater flexibility in design as well as innovation.

The first Monforts Eco Line denim finishing range in India has been installed at the Ahmedabad mill of India’s largest producer of denim, Arvind Ltd, according to a release.

The installation has been made to increase production, reduce energy usage, and respond more quickly to customer requests for specified designs and finishes.Monforts Area Sales Director for Southeast Asia Hans Gerhard Wroblowski said that Arvind’s early investment in this new technology gives the company at least a year’s lead ahead of competition from other Indian mills.

The Eco Line, which can handle fabric widths of 1800 mm and operate at high speeds of up to 80 m/min, is operating alongside four Montex foam finishing stenters, which are also able to handle this same width of material.

Arvind is among the top three denim producers in the world and sees further export potential.

Arvind Lifestyle Fabrics’ Denim Division CEO Aamir Akhtar said that in India the denim industry is growing at a compounded annual growth rate of 13% to 15%. Arvind’s own export-domestic output is around 50:50, but some of the domestic production is used in garments and exported, thus distorting the figure. Taking that factor into account, Akhtar believes that the export proportion is closer to 60%.Akhtar confirmed that Arvind stays ahead of its competition through a policy of design and innovation.

“We have our own major R&D facility, and we eat, think, sleep, and breathe design. For all this, we need the best in technology. Having been a Monforts user from the earliest days, we had no hesitation in investing in the new Eco Line”. “Not only does this make us even more responsive to customer needs and demands, and more creative in our design and production, there is also the very great energy saving advantage and tight control over emissions,” he said.

The Eco Line was manufactured in Monforts production facility ‘Montex’ in Austria and installed by Monforts’ representive in India, ATE Enterprises Private Ltd.

C V Babu, ATE’s General Manager for Sales at the company’s Ahmedabad office said, “The Eco Line system reduces energy losses and energy use, increases thermal transfer and keeps the drying energy on the textile material longer, so that it can be used very efficiently”.

“As a result, energy savings of up to 50 % can be achieved. Exhaust air energy can also be reduced to a minimum, which has a positive effect on the emission load into the atmosphere,” he said.

Arvind’s current annual denim capacity is 110 million metres, with prominent products including ring denim, indigo voiles, organic denim, bi-stretch denim and fair trade certified denim.

This is besides regular light, medium and heavyweight denims. They come in various shades of indigo, sulphur, yarn-dyes, in 100 % cotton and various blends.

“Denim is a great lifestyle product. It is also tremendously versatile. We are very, very upbeat about our global future,” Akhtar said.