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.
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 formost 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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