An integrated manufacturer of high-quality knitted fabrics, Mercury Fabrics has recently ventured into printed knitted fabrics with a fully automated setup, claiming to be the only one to do such high-end fine and complicated prints in India. Although the company is well-known for its quality knitted fabric that makes it a favourite to many exporters and international brands, this new niche value-add is pushing the company’s upward growth and setting it apart from its competitors.
Through a wide variety of knitted fabric applicable in a diverse product categories like casual wear, evening dresses, children wear, active wear, infant wear, swim wear, cover-ups, etc., Mercury caters to markets in the US, Spain, UK, Italy, Germany, through brands such as Miss Sixty, Victoria’s Secret, Zara, Tommy Hilfiger, Kohl’s, Ed-hardy, Esprit, GAP, DKNY, Bill Blass, Quick Silver, to name a few besides feeding many high-end brands working in the Indian domestic market like Enamor. With the addition of the new printing technology, the company can now offer variations in printed knitted fabrics such as stretch jersey, cotton blends, etc., a product category so niche that Mercury proudly challenges other knitted fabric manufacturers to prove them wrong. “The range and quality of products that we have, no one else has in the Indian market.
I can confidently claim that nowhere in India can any other knitted manufacturer print this type of fabrics; we have worked hard to perfect the outcome and the clients who have seen the results have been astonished,” claims Tajinder Sachdeva, MD, Mercury Fabrics.
To handle such a niche category, the company has a stateof-the-art fully automated integrated setup that has a strict quality system in place from inspection of yarn to knitting, grey inspection, processing lab, dyeing, interim inspection, finishing and final inspection, all of which is being done in-house. This well-defined system of production limits the chances of errors, while providing room for lesser dependence on external manufacturers, thereby maintaining the high quality standards set for the product. “We have invested a lot of money in the new plant, which includes latest machines, training to be technically sound and having a state-of-the-art sampling unit, which very few companies even consider. Our sampling unit costs are almost similar to the one of a complete ordinary plant, but we see the value it adds not the cost,” informs Tajinder. The company does sampling of 20 metres, with original designs and also ideas provided by the buyers. The company has also invested heavily in storage of ‘rolls’ used for printing, which is somewhere around Rs. 3,000 for a roll; the company has 3,000 such storage capacities.
The company’s plant setup in the growth centre Bawal (Haryana), covering about 25,000 sq. metres of built-up area, makes Mercury one of the most modern knit fabrics manufacturers with a fully equipped and professionally run dyeing and processing unit.
The senior management can closely monitor the factory from headquarters in Delhi through an integrated IT intervention. Though very clued into technology with a full-time IT team working round the clock and the best of machineries in the trade installed at the factory, Mercury still realizes the importance of its workforce. “Computers can support you, but at the end of the day a man has to do the work and I do understand that for managing such high-tech machines, a lot of exposure is required,” shares Tajinder. The company prefers to pick workers from either Ahmedabad, as they have expertise and sound knowledge in fabrics or from areas closer to the factory, as the job requires them to keep the factory running 24X7, dividing the work in two shifts. Apart from trained workers from the industry, the company also employs a lot of fresh graduates for different departments of the company. “At the end of the day it’s a complete team not a one man job. We have around 10 fresh graduates in all the departments and what we do is try to understand their calibre and place them so that they can be of value to us while absorbing the industry and its functioning,” adds Tajinder.
Currently, the company has a capacity to produce 10 tonnes per day of printed fabrics i.e. 70,000- 80,000 metres per day, apart from the 12-13 tonness per day of solid fabrics which works out to 100,000 metres per day, out of which the company consumes 50 per cent for its own capacity. The company boasts of 45 machines from quality manufacturers of the world such as Mayer & Cie, Terrot (Germany), Fukhuhara (Japan) & Junn Long (Korea) for Knitting, MCS (Italy), EHWHA (Korea) and BIANCO (Italy) for processing, with a stateof-the-art quality control and R&D lab fully equipped with instruments from world leaders James H Heal (UK).
Printing is their latest addition and Tajinder claims that not many knitters are ready to venture into it because of the challenges of limited knowledge available in the country for printed knits. But on the contrary, Mercury has made use of this opportunity! “Even technically sound people are scared to work in this segment, but I was determined to specialize in this area. I encouraged the people working with me to keep on experimenting and since we wanted to start our commercial production in June 2015, the sampling unit was installed in January so that we had all the time to do experiments. I have given them this freedom, confident that the results would be fantastic,” explains Tejinder. The company does a lot of blends in knitting and is also doing working in organic for which it has been certified by GOTS and OEKO-TEX, Mercury is also channel partner with LIVA, the new-age yarn from Birla Cellulose.
The father-son duo of Tajinder and Rahul, who is at the helm of marketing and brand building for the company, are very upbeat of the potential of their products, which are at par with many international standards.
“There is no challenge, if you are mentally strong to accept the hurdles. In fact, I was more passionate than ambitious to venture into printed knits. I enjoy my work and stayed for 8 months at a stretch when my plant was being constructed and we laid out the factory first and then accordingly the construction took place,” states Tajinder.
Going forward the company plans to conduct more trainings as Tajinder’s younger son, Pranav has just joined the business, bringing with him a box of ideas to make the workforce empowered with the new product offerings, finding innovative ways to market it. The printed knitted fabric is being sold at US $ 20 per yard, which is reasonable and of high quality as compared to similar fabric coming from China. Though still unknown to many, Mercury is riding high on the success of this product, which is gaining customer attention and generating curiosity in the market. With a turnover of Rs. 150 crore last year and forecasting a 27 per cent growth, this year Mercury is confident about its business plans and its strategies for growth. “All our fabrics, including the printed ones pass every testing parameter that is acceptable in the international market and in my ERP system the invoice comes out only if the lab has approved the fabric. Now the customer has started talking and we have received many enquiries in the 3 months,” concludes Tajinder.
