Textile printing industry in Surat pegged at ₹10,000 crore
The Shradhdha Group of companies was established in 2010 and is based out of Surat. The group has a presence through its subsidiaries Shradhdha Prints, Shradhdha Technologies and Shradhdha Enterprise. Shradhdha Technologies manufactures textile printing machines and sublimation and reactive inks. Owner Rushiraj Mulani chats about the growing textile printing industry in Surat.
What is the size of the textile printing industry in Surat? Where does Surat rank in India?
The size of textile printing industry in Surat is pegged at ₹10,000 crore. Surat stands first.
What is the market size of textile printers globally? At what rate is it growing?
The global market for digital textile printing is valued at $1.88 billion and in India it is around $600 million and is growing at the rate of 5.59 per cent worldwide.
What kinds of printers do you manufacture? Which are your major markets?
We manufacture dye-sublimation printers, heat transfer printing, direct-to-garment digital printers. The major markets in India are Surat, South India and Ludhiana. The new markets would be the eastern and northern parts of India, Europe and the US.
What is your annual production capacity? How many units have you sold so far?
The annual production capacity of printers is 200. We have so far sold 500 units.
What is the USP of your machines? What innovations are being done at your end?
The USP of our machines is our customers. The main marketing done by them after using our machines is a major benefit for us. We provide stable printing machines at the lowest price, we are one of the best after-sales service providers, and our customers are always our priority. In terms of innovation, Shradhdha is more focused on high-speed machines, better stability and low maintenance.
What is the amount spent on R&D?
We spend ₹1 crore annually on R&D.
Where do you source raw material for machines?
We source our raw materials from Japan, China, South Korea, Taiwan, Germany and the Netherlands.
What are the long-term plans at Shradhdha Technologies?
Shradhdha is going to manufacture sublimation paper of width 3.2m, which would be first of its kind in India. We will be making a digital machine, and that would include both hardware and software.
Where is the application of your printing system increasing?
The advertising sector, direct-togarment digital printing, process mills and home decor.
What textile printing technologies are Indian manufacturers investing in?
Better quality of inks, low GSM paper machines and high-speed machines.
What latest printing technologies do you plan to launch soon?
High-speed machines with a greater number of heads in both dye-sublimation and direct-to-garment digital printing.
Please share details of the last two fiscal and expectations from 2019.
For both 2017 and 2018, that would be ₹15 crore. Our expectations for 2019 is ₹20 crore.
This Interview was first published in the October 2019 edition of the print magazine.
Published on: 01/11/2019
DISCLAIMER: All views and opinions expressed in this column are solely of the interviewee, and they do not reflect in any way the opinion of Fibre2Fashion.com.
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