The second edition of Indigo saw a wide visitor profile from top domestic brands and exporters to Gandhi Nagar (Delhi) based jeans manufacturers and traders of denim fabric. The event saw five denim fabric companies, namely Malwa Denim, LNJ Denim, Vinod Denim, Modern Denim and a new entrant in denim from Surat, R& B Denim showcasing their latest developments in denim along with a few yarn manufacturers. However, the star attraction at the event was the operational assembly line for jeans manufacturing at the EH Turel & Co. booth right from cutting to bundling to sewing, using Vibemac machines for special operations and machines from Typical for basic operations. A hit with the industry, the display attracted attention from many companies, both already into jeans manufacturing and those looking to foray into the segment...

The visitation profile of the recently concluded GTE’13 in a way indicates the direction that the garment manufacturing industry is taking. Though over the last few years the event has been seeing increased visitation from domestic hubs in and around Delhi, this year the dominance of manufacturers with very small setups targeting the domestic market was undisputed. The technology providers too have accepted that the domestic players are the future growth segment and many are re-strategizing to service this segment, which has needs that are very different from those of the export manufacturing units.

Consecutively organized machinery fairs for the garment and textile industry in different parts of the country clearly signify that the industry is spread out in regional clusters, each with a distinct character and need. While the GTE focused mainly on technology for garment production and finishing, Knit Tech, Tirupur has carved its niche as the most important event catering to the needs of the knitting industry from textile to finished product. The fair attracted not just knit-centric Tirupur, but many companies located in the southern states of the country along with customers from Surat, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Ludhiana and Delhi who visited the fair for latest technology in the knit segment.

Automation, ‘everywhere and by everyone’… That’s the mantra for this year’s edition of the Garment Technology Expo (GTE). Gone are the days when the technology providers were offering single needle basic machine. Today with the increasing labour cost, quality expectations and downward spiralling cost demands of the buyers, it is difficult to think of working with simple machines.

Leading computerized flat knitting machine manufacturer Shima Seiki Mfg. Ltd. of Wakayama, Japan which celebrated its 50th Anniversary on February 4th, 2012, followed it up with a gala celebration in November with over 1400 customers and 1300 employees. The event began with a fashion show featuring some intriguing examples of Wholegarment and new integral knitwear. The three-day event was complemented by an exhibition of over 600 knitted items including samples from over 30 international apparel brands that use Wholegarment knitwear in their collections, as well as students’ works from a dozen schools worldwide that currently use SDS-ONE APEX3 and related design systems.

It has been more than a year with the industry accepting the fact that productivity and efficiency improvement is the only feasible way to sustain operations and business in these times, but not many substantial steps have been taken in this direction. Rising to the occasion one of the oldest technology supplier to the Indian textile-apparel value chain, Rajasthan International, recently organized a seminar in New Delhi on ‘How to Increase the Productivity of Your Knitting Machine’ with the help of its key technology principles from Groz-Beckert, Klüber and Memminger-Iro.

ITME India, occurring every 4 years, is not only a destination fair for sourcing the latest technology but for the masses it is an education in textile technology. Manufacturers from all over the world converge here to showcase their products in the most promising market. It may be true that this fair does not offer many technologies to the garment industry but still the progressive garment companies can look at the area to expand while a few others can look at strengthening their capabilities, like in digital printing, knitting machines, dyeing and testing technologies, amongst others

Founded 140 years ago, T�V Rheinland, a global provider of technical, safety and certification services, has recently inaugurated its first softlines testing laboratory in Gurgaon, India. The Group maintains a worldwide presence at around 500 locations in 65 countries, with over 16,000 employees and maintaining an annual turnover of Euro 1.4 billion. In India, the Group is present since 1996, and currently holds 23 offices with employee strength of over 400.

The eighth edition of the OGTC annual conference ICAHT-12 saw many industry informed participants and speakers debate key issues that are of importance to the industry today over the two days of presentations and workshops. The forum has grown with time and has pulled many regular participants year after year to use the platform for exchanging ideas and meeting new experts from around the world. Though the theme of this year’s conference was 'The New Excellence', it would not be wrong to say that the focus of many of the presentations was on ‘People’ and how the management needs to change their mind-set to redefine the priorities to grow in a competitive global business environment. Many well-known consultants and names from the industry shared their experiences and left the participants with many thoughts and perspectives to ponder on.

JIAM 2012 lived up to its original glory with many visitors from Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, India, Pakistan and China. It was not a surprise since most of the visitors were on a sponsored trip from the participants. It was an open secret that Brother, Juki, Tajima had all doled out travel and stay for their ‘critical’ customers. Only YIN, China came on record to admit that they have invited 100 of their customers to Japan to showcase to them their Japanese presence since the company also manufactures in Japan to maintain the quality. “With the current market situation, the organizers were worried about visitation, but we guaranteed them 400 sq. metre space for display with more than 100 visitors from China alone. Such fairs are very important and this kind of support we will be giving to CISMA also,” said Yin Zhiyong, President, Yin Science and Technology