Weaving sector needs incentives to innovate eco-friendly fabrics
Reckon Industries adapts latest systems for manufacturing from designing and procurement of fabrics to quality control. The company recently started its new venture for manufacturing of textile process house machines like steaming machines, curing machines, continuous washing range, loop ager for digital printing and all types of dyeing machines. Managing Director Abhishek Pachauri shares the latest developments at his company and makes suggestions in improving the textiles sector.
What measures should be taken to be in the same league as Vietnam, China, and Bangladesh?
If you have an overview of Vietnam, China, and Bangladesh, the competition is never within them; they always compete with the outside world, which makes them successful. We, on the contrary, just to gain short-term benefits are compromising on quality, which ultimately is eroding profit margins in the long run. The governments of these countries are providing tremendous support to outgrow other competing markets which should be implemented by our government as well.
Tell us briefly about the journey of your company. How did you come to start your company, who are the founders, the initial seed money, and the milestones achieved?
Though the journey has just started for Reckon Industries and there is a long and beautiful road ahead, we have had, till this far, a very exciting journey with young talent bringing in fresh energy, ideas and innovations by developing new products and giving maximum time to R&D so as to explore new frontiers. Reckon Industries was founded in November 2015 by my father Suresh Pachauri and me. Just as any start-up has to pass through initial hiccups, our company was no different, but was built with a strong determination to go on and grow so as to give this industry something that no one has yet thought of achieving; that has made us one of the major players. For us awards do matter, but more than anything customer satisfaction is the biggest award for us.
Every machine supplied is a milestone and every satisfied customer is our only award. But the biggest milestone is exporting globally.
A lot of textile traders in Surat recently protested against the GST. What are your thoughts on this? Can GST be a game-changer for the Indian textiles industry?
If my perspective is sought then definitely this is going to be the biggest game changer on a positive note. Everyone cannot be happy; some will have different opinions and views. But yes, overall as a business-person, your profits would decrease, but your clientele and modus operandi will be hassle-free.
What are the five drawbacks that Surat needs to work on to emerge stronger and draw global attention to its advantages as a sourcing destination?
To criticise and blame is very easy; so, instead of talking about disadvantages, let's share the advantages and how they can be further increased to draw global attention:
1. Processing units are in clusters and there are such clusters for all the divisions of the industry, be it yarn preparatory, weaving, processing, and value addition;
2. Easily approachable and accessible wholesale and retail markets;
3. Biggest innovator and risk taker for the innovations in all channels of the industry.
4. Constantly adaptive market. All this just needs a push to operate in a little organised way and there is no need to look back.
Please share details of the last two fiscal years and your expectations for the next two.
Reckon Industries began its operations in November 2015; so it's not really two fiscals for us yet. The demonetisation and GST implementation did reduce the pace of growth, but we took advantage of that as well and did lot of R&D. From the next two fiscals, we expect a minimum growth of 25 per cent y-o-y.
What are the changes that you are looking for in the rates announced and why?
As a machine manufacturer, earlier we had to do two different taxations of excise and sales tax which comprised 17.5 per cent.
The GST now is 18 per cent and an increase of 0.5 per cent won't make much of a difference. But just cumulating different taxes would ultimately lead to this only, what GST is proposing. We are not the first nation to introduce GST; the more money that is kept in rotation, the better is the development. People want to do hassle-free businesses and they want the taxes being paid to the government to be utilised for development and for better infrastructure. But, when tax money is siphoned out of the growth channel, it shall have an adverse effect leading to tax evasion. As a citizen no one is against a rise in taxation unless and until it is returned to the taxpayers with long-term benefits. It is a whirlpool on both sides, positive as well as negative.
What are your expectations and suggestions for the National Textiles Policy (NTP)?
Suggestions won't be the right term to be used, because as a businessman somewhere I would be selfish with my suggestion as profit-making would be my top priority. But expectations surely can be discussed:
1. Making this sector more organised in terms of technology and skilled manpower;
2. Making the sector more aware about reducing carbon footprint;
3. It should ask processing units to improve the on-floor working environment for its skilled and unskilled labourers;
4. More benefits should be given to upcoming and advanced technologies to all channels of the industry;
5. Weaving sectors should be pushed with incentives to innovate eco-friendly fabrics and the same should be followed by the yarn sector as well.
Which are your major markets for your machines?
Both India and overseas are the major markets for us. For digital, we are targeting Europe and the US.
What is the annual R&D budget?
About 10-12 per cent of the total turnover is allocated for R&D, which is reviewed as per the market scenario.
What are the three steps taken by your company to ensure a smaller carbon footprint?
Being a manufacturing unit of machines, we do not have much role to play on our shop floor with carbon footprint, but of course our clientele play a major role. So, giving clients technologies of the future that would help reducing their carbon footprint is our primary objective and motto.
1. We are constantly evolving the precision in our machine automation which helps clients in reducing wastage of energy;
2. We are putting a lot of effort into R&D to developtechnologies that conserve energy and use renewable resources to achieve results better than conventional processes;
3. We do constant innovations to reuse the energy produced to run/operate our machines to optimise and help in reduction of operating cost of our clientele.
What is the level of automation adopted by processing units in India? Is it at par with other countries like China, Vietnam, and Bangladesh?
The industry needs to be price conscious as cheap price products are going to be compromised either with quality or with after sales services. Machine automation has just begun in India; there is still a huge vacuum, and we have to adapt quickly to gain ground to compete with these countries.
How sustainable and energy-saving are machines made at Reckon?
Machines manufactured by Reckon are technologically very advanced which constantly monitor energy consumption.
What is the kind of training and after-sales services offered at Reckon?
We concentrate a lot on R&D; so any product introduced in the market goes through tremendous brainstorming and each engineer is very well-versed with the product. We assure to provide after-sales services worldwide within 48 hours.
Do you plan to incorporate IoT (Internet of Things) and AI in future technologies?
We are constantly evolving and innovating by spending a good amount on R&D, and we are fully focused on IoT and AI. We are going to introduce a totally ultra-modern and futuristic technology to the processing machine manufactured by Reckon within a very short time.
What are the future plans at your company?
Reckon is growing at a tremendous pace right now, and the next two fiscals are going to see major changes in the company. Those shall not go unnoticed; that is for sure.
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