The phenomenon of ‘Continuous Improvement’ is equally necessary for a business enterprise as for a manufacturer, irrespective of the nature of business. The same has been imbibed by Mehala Machine India in its operations as a provider of solutions for the apparel industry from companies like Duerkopp Adler, PFAFF Industrial, Siruba, Topcut Bullmer and many more companies of equal brand value. The Tirupur-based company with presence all over India through 10 offices and 400 sub-dealers, Mehala has in the past one-and-a-half years added a lot of critical technology providers to its product portfolio.
Spearheading the company’s representation at the GTE show was Ashim Das, CEO, Mehala. “We have focussed on regaining customer confidence not just by talking to them or visiting them regularly, but by performing in terms of reliability as a service and technical support provider,” said Ashim. The company provides round the clock service to many of its key customers and due to such dedication and commitment as a service provider Mehala has not only regained some brands and principals to its product portfolio but has also added many new ones. “Like with the inclusion of PFAFF’s heavy duty sewing machines into our product portfolio, we now have a complete set of sewing solutions for the heavy duty sewn product segment of the country, which was missing earlier and we were not able to tap the top segment of the industry,” claims Ashim, who looks at maintaining the right balance of suitable automation and brand value while selecting a technology.
“Besides being a professionally run company, we have never lost the personal touch when servicing the industry as it is about building relationships, but on the other hand we have well defined systems in place for working as an efficient and transparent organization.” – C Subramaniam, Chairman, Mehala Machines India
The market has seen an upward graph for Mehala with not only the existing companies expanding and upgrading the manufacturing systems, but even with a lot of new guys entering the industry and looking at setting up plants right from the scratch. “The projects are of such scale that we are helping people to design the buildings also, so we have an entire project team working on it. In the future we might look at hiring civil engineers and architects for designing building, seeing the new projects,” adds Ashim and believes the sustenance of the industry lies on the aspects of skill development and technology upgradation.
Apart from servicing the core export and domestic manufacturing segment of the country, Mehala has also diversified its focus towards catering to the Ordnance Factories of the country, which most of the companies are averse at working with due to their tedious and long drawn procedures like L1 tenders. “We have actually visited those factories and created a need for automation in such manufacturing facilities. Recently you witnessed lot of tenders being floated by such manufacturing facilities for producing shirts, trousers and other sewn products,” shared Ashim. The company has also been focussing on the unorganized domestic manufacturing sector of the country by dedicating a separate sales force for the market segment and developing a strong sub-dealer network, as this segment accounts for high daily sales like a retail model.
