Even as the market slows down and competition gets tougher, companies such as Groz-Beckert remain strong against the turbulent business environment. Amongst the leading providers of industrial needles, precision components and fine tools as well as systems and services for production and joining of textile surfaces, Groz-Beckert in India continues to maintain its stronghold by penetrating deeper into the domestic market. In conversation with Apparel Online, Sanjay Sharma, Country Head – Sales (India and Nepal), Groz-Beckert shares the company’s strategy amidst competition in such a niche product category.
For the company, domestic markets in Surat, Ludhiana, Kolkata, etc. are slowing down but main markets such as Bangalore and Tirupur from where the company gets huge amount of business are doing well. “Compared to the domestic market, the export market is doing better for us but that is mainly because we are in the consumable segment rather than capital investment segment. Today the big exporters such as Shahi, OC, SPL, BL International, are still getting work, but while usually this work gets trickled down to the job workers, now this flow is quickly drying up. Even mid-level players are struggling,” claims Sanjay The market is also seeing a significant drop in leather consumption in Europe, which has affected the leather goods market such as Kolkata as well. “Because of refugee crisis the sentiments are changing as tax money is being utilized for them. It’s not as if they don’t have money but because of lower sentiments people are becoming conservative,” adds Sanjay.
Having already conquered the major export manufacturing hubs in the sewing needle segment, the company is now eyeing the domestic markets, which have been the stronghold of other competitors. “We cannot lower prices to win bigger share in the export market, as quality is priority, so now we are looking at new markets, mostly in small centres like Ulhasnagar, Dharavi, Bellary, Gandhinagar, Gorakhpur, Saharanpur, etc, which are admittedly the stronghold of another brand,” says Sanjay. The customer base which is typically known as the C & D customer (having 5-25 machines), are spread out all over the country and to reach them one needs to have tremendous workforce and a strong strategy.
Determined to increase its brand visibility in this segment, the company is doing road shows, providing package stickers and free samples. “It’s a long process to break a brand loyalty of many years and it will take 3-4 years to even get noticed, but we are working on it and this is the only way to go about it,” claims Sanjay. To start with, the company is targeting 2-3 machine players, which independently doesn’t look huge but combined together makes a huge customer base.
The company’s knitting-machine needles, system parts and knitting cylinders fulfil the highest requirements of machine manufacturers and knitting mills. Its product range offers optimal solutions for manufacturing seamless on small circular knitting machines for products such as socks, outerwear and innerwear and also products of the finest lace on Raschel machines. Even in this segment, which has been the traditional stronghold for Groz-Beckert, fresh competition is coming in from Korea and other Asian countries, but the company is unfazed. “There are many small players in this segment now, but we are clear market leaders in knitting needles as the next competition is not even half of ours,” asserts Sanjay. But this does not in any way mean that complacency has seeped in and the company is continuously making effort to introduce new products. Among the latest to be introduced into the market is a needle to produce ultra-fine knitted fabrics on large diameter circular knitting machines and on seamless body size machines, which places the highest requirements on needle precision. The new Vo-LC™ generation from Groz-Beckert fulfils these demands.
Apart from garmenting, the company is following a market-oriented approach and is now concentrating on developing the automobile segment in Chennai, Pune and Delhi and also on the innerwear segment such as Rupa, Lux, Jockey, Dora etc. “We are always looking for new opportunities at the local level, while at the global level the company is on the lookout for sustainable options,” concludes Sanjay. A testimony of the commitment is seen in the many years of research and development together with customers and machine manufacturers all over the world to introduce an impressive needle for high-performance circular knitting machines, the litespeed® for CO2 reduction that is truly sustainable.
