Business

Itema is optimistic about investments picking up in the Indian weaving sector

Excellence is an attitude, and Updeep Singh, who recently took over as Managing Director of Itema Weaving (India) Pvt Ltd, has certainly excelled in his long career in the textile industry. With a vast experience of 27 years in the country's leading textile manufacturing groups, Updeep has now moved into textile engineering. With his varied textile background, his vision is to create a strong service and training hub for the technologically advanced complete weaving solutions, much needed by India's weaving industry. In conversation with Reena Mital.

What made you move into textile engineering, having spent many a years in textile manufacturing?

Yes, I have been associated with the textile manufacturing industry for over two decades. Starting as a management trainee in 1987, I went on to Head of Projects in Vardhman group and later handled divergent portfolio from Projects to Global HR and Hospitality business in Welspun group. NSL Textiles, a fully integrated textile company, gave me a complete exposure to handle the business from cotton fiber to processed fabric, including weaving. So, I have worked almost across the complete textile value chain. I am confident that my joining Itema is a perfect fit and a logical progression from my extensive exposure as a customer to technology and service in the textile industry. ITEMA is an international group with vocation for excellence and inventiveness and this excites me about my new role in textile engineering.

Weaving has been a weak link in the textile chain. Do you agree?

Investments were not forthcoming in this segment for a number of reasons. The sector is largely dominated by the powerloom and handloom sector, which is only now progressing towards better technology. The central government's Technology Upgradation Fund Scheme (TUFS) was unavailable for a long time, which also impacted investments. Government is now providing good incentives to the weaving sector under TUFS.

In addition, availability of good quality yarn in India would help weaving sector to grow.

I believe India's weaving industry will soon begin to realise its full potential. We see investments taking off in the organised mill sector, with a number of weaving projects in the offing. There is a lot of integration happening too. Many spinners are exploring the option of setting up weaving capacities. Some ginners too have evinced interest in such projects. This is especially true in Andhra Pradesh.Importantly, the powerloom sector has begun investing in better technologies. Maybe this segment will first adopt base machines, but there will be a gradual scaling up of technology. And you can imagine the market growth once that begins to happen. I anticipate that this will happen over the next 3-5 years.As you can see, I am optimistic about investments picking up in the weaving sector in India.

To what extent will textile policies help?

Textile policies of the central government combined with those of the various state governments would considerably boost the domestic textile sector. I believe Gujarat textile policy is very attractive. The state has a good cotton and spinning sector, and the next progression for government incentives will be weaving. The much awaited new textile policy of Andhra Pradesh will also attract investments in the state, especially in clusters like Guntur, where ginners and spinners are forward integrating.

What is Itema's share in India's weaving technology market?

Itema is the only renowned technology provider which offers three weft insertion technologies - rapier, airjet and projectile. We are the sole providers of projectile weaving technology in the world, so obviously enjoy a 100% share even in the Indian and the world markets. However, the market for this technology is quite small as it caters to mainly technical textiles. In rapier too, we enjoy a dominant market share of around 60-70%, having got the best of technologies together. In airjet, Itema has come out with weaving machines with advanced features and is cutting through the major market share. We have introduced our technology which certainly has many benefits over that of competitors in terms of productivity, energy consumption, maintenance and speed.

What is your vision and strategy for Itema Weaving in India?

We will forge a solid reputation with top-of-the-line weaving solutions backed by our services. These are good times for the weaving machinery suppliers as investments in weaving are happening and will continue to grow.My aim is also to create a strong service and training centre for the Indian weaving sector, led by engineering professionals in India. Having worked in the weaving industry for many years, I know that this is an important service that weavers need. Technological developments in textile engineering have progressed phenomenally; a machine offers a large number of features to ease operations. But, much too often, machines are not operated optimally in mills. I believe that a strong training and service network within the country will help Itema in further improving its presence in the Indian market, by offering a very important service to the industry backed by the state-of-the-art technology.