'As A Textile Technology Manufacturer, Creator, Innovator, I Realise I Have An Important Role In The Growth Of The Textile Industry'

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'As A Textile Technology Manufacturer, Creator, Innovator, I Realise I Have An Important Role In The Growth Of The Textile Industry'

Years of hard work, perseverance, investments are paying off for Rabatex Industries, which is now recognised as one of the leaders in the textile engineering industry. In an exclusive interview with Reena Mital, Haresh Panchal, Managing Director, Rabatex Industries, shared how he achieved his vision and mission of offering the best Indian technology to the global textile industry. Rabatex has gone all out this time to make its presence felt in India ITME 2022. What influenced you to invest in branding? Rabatex wants to enlarge its footprint covering all tiers of clientele – domestically and globally. We already have a wide range of products and solutions, innovative products, cost effective solutions, advanced technological products, quick and efficient customer service, making Rabatex the preferred technology partner to the global textile industry. We want to showcase this strength and leadership, through our branding exercise. What new are you showcasing at India ITME? We have a range of interesting developments on show at India ITME this time. The advanced version of sectional warper with highest process automation makes this the most user-friendly machine. Then we are proudly showcasing our newly developed, unique fabric sampling machines, which include high-speed sample warping machine, narrow width sample weaving machine, cone-to-cone sizing machine, and short length sample warper upto 500 meter length – all aimed at making value-added fabric manufacturing simpler and viable for the industry. Also on display is the multi-segment usage auto storage and retrieval system (ASRS), which offers a multitude of benefits to users. In some sampling and other machines, you are undisputed global leader. How did you achieve this, especially in the context of being an Indian company? As a textile technology manufacturer and creator, I believe we have a huge responsibility towards supporting the textile industry. The idea for making these fabric sampling machines in India came to me eight years ago when I was in Italy. Someone told me that in the periphery of Milan alone, there are more than 300 fabric sampling machines for preparation of short length fabrics as well as exclusive fabrics for major brands. That’s when I realised how Italy had come to be known as the innovator in textile and fashion design. And I decided to make the effort for manufacturing complete range of fabric sampling machine in India. We invested heavily in R&D for designing and developing the fabric sampling machine. I can confidently say that we have come out with a machine that is far superior in performance compared to what is available in the market. Response from the industry is overwhelming, they are no longer dependent on imported machines which are inferior in performance to our machines. Rabatex has proved that Indian textile technology can successfully compete with established world leaders. Your message to this industry. At Rabatex, we believe in offering value to customers, technological solutions, for mutual multifold growth, aimed at global competency. We have invested heavily in our facilities, in R&D, ensuring world standard equipment and machinery, backed by advanced automation, digitalisation. Consistent product quality, giving priority to customer satisfaction has resulted in Rabatex becoming a major market stakeholder in this segment. We have been able to achieve close to 98.3% customer satisfaction consistently over the last seven years. More than 45% orders are repeat orders purely on ground of product performance and customer satisfaction. What new is in the pipeline at Rabatex? We are now further upgrading our fabric sampling and material handling and storage solutions with more advanced IT compatibility. We have started our research and development in multi-segment products like ASRS which will be in high demand in coming times, with average CAGR of 13% globally. Are you envisaging a slowdown in the global textile industry? On the contrary, we believe there are great opportunities for us in the coming days. In the last couple of years, we have successfully exported our products to USA, Canada, Turkey, Mexico, South Africa. For Rabatex, the global opportunities are immense. With our diversified, technologically advanced product portfolio, and our in-house capabilities of market and trend forecasts, we are looking forward to great times ahead. Anything else you would like to share. We believe that forward integration will put the Indian textile industry on the global map, and win it a bigger market share. Today, we have a marginal share in apparel and technical textiles. Government and the textile industry focus towards this will make the Indian textile industry an even bigger contributor to India’s GDP growth. Especially, mission-driven schemes such as Make In India will lead to meaningful investments, and huge savings of foreign exchange. Rabatex Industries’ Success Story “Rabatex Group of Industries established in 1962, pioneered in serving the textile industry with top class products and relentless service. Today, we have achieved new heights in the global market. “Rabatex Group has not only developed new technology in warp sampling and technical textiles, but also made joint venture agreements with Karl Mayer Group to make state-of-the-art warp preparation machines in Ahmedabad, India. We also have a JV agreement with Alexander Giovanelli to manufacture and supply their electrically operated material handling equipment across the globe. “Our newly developed VLM storage solutions are one more feather in the cap. Our motto has been customer satisfaction – with the best in class technology and service. Today we have more than 45% repeat order which ensure continual growth and development. “Today Rabatex Group meets all the requirements of Industry 4.0, its various associations with industry giants have helped in Rabatex offering the most advanced and meaningful solutions to the industry. We are continuously enhancing our product portfolio by adding sustainable solutions with digitalisation and ease of operations as per the market expectations and demands. “With the inception of VLM – storage solution systems – we have further spread our wings to other industry segments, while continuing to focus on the technological advancements of the textile industry, which is our forte. “We proudly support the Indian Government’s initiative of `Atmanirbhar Bharat’ and indigenous manufacturing.”