The recently held Fabrics & Accessories Show (F&A) in Bangalore was quite
small when compared to the previous years; however a few new exhibitors
with their latest developments in fabrics could hold the interest of the visitors.
The other welcome move was the concurrent inaugural edition of HOMTEX
2012, (India International Home Textiles Exhibition) which though not big in
terms of number of participants, did have some interesting exhibitors. Visitor
footfall at the fair was also relatively less in this edition with the organisers
attributing the slow movement to local reasons including the opposition-led
“Bharat Band” just a day before the fair started. Some of the exhibitors also
claimed that the publicity of the fair was not as effective as the previous
fairs; many felt that the F&A has to be relooked by the organizers if it is to
remain a much awaited show for fabrics and accessories.
The F&A show has
become synonymous
with a huge display
of all kinds of apparel
fabrics, suiting, shirting, bottom
weights, knitted, fleece, greige,
denim, velvet, embroidered
fabrics and dress materials
by a wide array of Indian and
international manufacturers and
suppliers of innovative fabrics.
Perhaps, the only fair to give
accessories like labels, elastics,
embroidery threads, hangers,
interlinings, buttons, tapes, tags,
laces and bar coding a strong
presence, this edition of F&A too
saw many key players display
their latest collections.
Fibre & Yarn segment
had some innovative
offerings
A global leader in innovative
fibres and yarns, Invista was
one prominent exhibitor in
this category. The company
showcased its latest innovation
like Lycra fibre with W
Technology for longer lasting
whites and more brilliant fashion
colours in intimate apparel
fabrics. Lycra fibre with W
Technology or Lycra fibre T279W
has a package of enhancements that improves visual and
physical fabric uniformity with
an optimized lustre, colour
blending and new proprietary
spinning technology. This fibre
incorporates advantages for
garments requiring brilliant
whites and fashion colours
alike, in styles requiring high
uniformity, wash fastness and
styling flexibility.
The Lycra Beauty Fabric
collection is segmented into
four categories – Smoothing,
Curves, Sculpt and Control – to
match diverse garment needs,
depending on the priority of
the garment brand’s aesthetic,
functionality and overt or subtle
shaping design. Invista also
presented innovations in legwear
fibres and technologies that
allow brands to combine comfort
with fit and style. “Invista is not
only concentrating on
innerwear, but a combination of yarns for all fabric requirements. Ready to wear is the biggest segment for us right now and our developments for denim are being well received. For intimate apparels the properties which the fibre provides is in terms of comfort, as the fabrics are body hugging in nature,” said Avinash Chandra, Marketing Head – South Asia, Invista while interacting with Team AO.
Continuous R&D for innovative
product is what Invista believes
in. “We are working very
closely with Indian garment
manufacturers, brands and
retailers. For this, we have
increased our technical presence
in South Asia and recently
opened up a warehouse in
Chennai which is helping us to
cater our clients better in terms
of delivery times,” adds Rishi
Suri, Regional Business Head
– South Asia at Invista.
Another very innovative
manufacturer, VSM Weaves
India Ltd., a part of Pallavaa Group showcased its latest
innovations in woven fabrics. The
Pallavaa Group manufactures
amsler slub yarn, siro yarn,
high twist yarn, TFO twisted
yarn, vortex yarn, rigid and
flexible core spun yarn and
knitted fabrics in 28 gauge.
Alakan Karuppannan, Head -
Marketing Business Innovation
& Sustainability shares, “Our
focus in Bangalore has been on
the woven fabrics. In the knitting
segment, since the last two years
we are focusing on our new long
last spun yarn which gives low
pilling and high resistant fabric.
This is a super compact yarn,
which even after ten washes
looks absolutely fresh and there is no pilling in the fabric.”
According to the company, the
brand Classic Polo has done
a wash trial and was happy
with the result. “It’s all due to
spinning technology and not with
finishes at all,” says Alakan. All
the loose fibres are well bound
together by high-tech spinning
technology so the surface is
always clean. Viscose and other
such fibres are very hairy and
this result cannot be achieved by
conventional spinning.
Pallavaa’s core product is non
cotton speciality products
like Lenzing viscose, Tencel,
Lenzing modal, micro modal and
polyester blends. Viscose is the
staple product in this range. Now the main thrust of the company is
on poly cotton and poly viscose.
Pallavaa is equipped with latest
technology in spinning, having
in total 60,000 spindles with 18
vortex machines and 5 open end
machines to produce 60 tonnes of
spun yarn per day.
Fabric displays show
variety…
While cotton dominated the
displays in fabric, there were
a few interesting exhibitors in
polyester. Two exhibitors from
Surat – Rasik Vatika and Vallabh
International, showcased their
latest developments in prints in
polyesters and cotton/polyesters
blends both rotary and digital.
According to Vaibhav Arora,
Director, Rasik Vatika, there
is an increase in the demand
for blends of polyesters with
cotton as it is in trend these
days. “Digital prints is picking
up fast, but it is still a small
volume business as the imported
inks are quite expensive, and
obviously margins are better
when volumes are low,” reasons
Vaibhav, according to whom
multi-coloured digital printing
designs are popular these days.
Avinash Chandra, Marketing Head; and Rishi Suri, Regional Business Head – South Asia at Invista.
South based exporters are still
working primarily with cotton,
as cotton is the core fibre of the
region and also because most
of them are focusing more on men’s wear than ladies wear.
However, Vaibhav sees this as
an opportunity for polyester
manufacturers like him, who
can provide them with latest
fabrics, so that exporters sitting
in Bangalore can actually look
at ladies wear as a growth area.
“Gokaldas Exports has shown a
keen interest in our fabrics and
there are many more companies
who can be tapped for our kind of
fabrics,” avers Vaibhav.
Vallabh International too
showcased its very eye catching
fabric developments in rotary and
digital prints. Initiated in 2002,
90% of the company’s business
is from fabric trading. “We are
catering to all international
brands through garment
exporters. Our fabric is being
used by M&S, American Eagle,
A&F, Zara to mention a few. We
get forecasts from the buyers
through their vendors and we
start developing the samples; we
try to replicate them to the closest
possibility.” says Vijju Punjabi,
CEO, Vallabh International.
Major portion of the business for
the company is in rotary printing
and recently they have started
digital prints. “Right now we are
outsourcing digital prints,” adds
Vijju who is soon starting his
own weaving setup with a fully
automated plant with around 96
water jet looms.
There were a reasonably good
number of exhibitors in the
shirting and suiting segment like
Donear, Mandhana to mention
the prominent ones. Amongst the
smaller players Ichalkaranji’s
Ramkrishna (Jhanwar) Group
exhibited its yarn dyed and
solid shirting fabrics and also
very fine ladies top fabrics.
“We produce from 6 single to
140 single; from 30 gsm to 300
gsm, in fact we can develop and
manufacture anything which
the buyer wants,” says young
Vasudev D. Jhanwar, Director
of the company whose fabrics
are directly or indirectly going
to international brands and
retailers namely Calvin Klein,
Esprit, Ralph Lauren, to mention
a few. Exporters like Shahi and
LT Karle are placing huge orders
with the company. “Recently
we’ve made a fabric that Ritu
Kumar has bought from us,”
shares Vasudev.
With a current turnover of
Rs. 150 crore, Ramkrishna
is now looking at adding
another 16 rapier looms with
an invest of around Rs. 4 to
Rs. 5 crore. The company is also
looking at entering into denim
manufacturing not just weaving
the fabric but also putting up
an indigo dyeing plant which
would be indeed an incredible
move. As Ichalkaranji is more known as a weaving hub and a
well equipped process house,
this will be something rare for
the hub. “We’ll start with basic
denims and then we will think of
fashion denims. We are looking
at producing 10 to 20 million
metres per annum to start with,”
avers Vasudev, who also shared
that Ramkrishna was the first
company to bring powerloom and
sizing machines to Ichalkaranji.
Accessories displays
The accessory manufacturers
also had some new developments
to showcase. Kotak Fashion
International, manufacturers of
many accessory items including
plastic bucks, brassiere buckles,
crochet cotton laces, embroidery
laces and flowers, Lycra knitted
laces, velvet and satin ribbons/
bows, stretch fabrics, lingerie
fasteners, Hook & Eyes, Hook
& Eye tapes (nickel and nickel
free), transparent tapes, foam
cups and other garments and
inner garment accessories
had many custom designs on
display. The main highlight of the
product display was on adhesive
tapes which are used in fabric
bonding. “This is a very special
kind of TPU based film, we can
bind knitted fabrics and the
best part is even if it stretches
it does not leave any marks, it
can stretch seamlessly and can take fifty wash cycles. Apart
from that it can also bind open
face fabrics like laces and many
other fabrics,” detailed Nikhil
T. Kotak, CEO, Kotak Fashion
International. Specialising in
different kind of laces and Hook
& Eye tape for lingerie and
garments, Kotak is soon starting
its commercial production of
nylon coated ring and adjusters
used in bra straps.
Union Knopf (HK) Ltd., a
German company with its
marketing office in Hong Kong,
showcased its latest global
collection of buttons and
premium closing solutions.
The company has three
production facilities in Europe
and production partners
around Asia. “We are receiving
extremely positive response
from the Indian industry and
there is good demand for higher
quality and novelties that we are
known for; what is required is
to meet the price points of the
Indian companies; it’s a learning
process for us,” said, Eberhard
Ganns, Managing Director of
the company. Knopf entered into
the Indian market in 2011 and
the company is still trying to
understand the Indian market
and how its products can fit in,
in terms of quality and price
and how it has to position its
products. “We are in a learning process, but given that our
company is 101 years old, we are
not impatient and we know that
it needs time to enter into new
market and we have already
received the first order from
one of the companies in India,”
shares Ganns.
Uflex Limited, one of the
major players in the world in
the field of flexible packaging
showcased its polyester chips,
metallised/CPP Films, adhesives,
flexible laminates and tapes,
ribbons and embroidered
patchwork. C.G. Ramesh,
DGM - Marketing shared with
Team AO that the company
also manufactures security
holograms. “We are one of
the largest security hologram
manufacturers, working for
most of the Government
agencies. We have another
vertical for textile value
addition wherein we make raw
materials as per the US and the
European compliance norms;
we are nominated by buying
office like Next, Impulse, H&M
and the likes. We produce
glitter yarn, embroidered
patches, etc.” The company
has its distribution network
in Surat, Amritsar, Delhi-NCR
and Tirupur. The company has
recently invested about Rs. 150
crore in Jammu to manufacture
value additions for textiles.
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