'Hemlon Believes In Staying Ahead Of The Race, With New Products And Innovation As Our Trademark'

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'Hemlon Believes In Staying Ahead Of The Race, With New Products And Innovation As Our Trademark'

Gujarat based Hemlon Synthetics can be considered a pioneer in manufacturing of polyester stretch yarn and air textured yarn. The company understands the needs of its customers, offering products that they had to import till now. Sapan Majmundar, Director, Hemlon Synthetics Pvt Ltd, is confident of establishing new markets and horizons with Hemlon's innovative, value-added products. Here, Sapan discusses the way forward for Hemlon Synthetics. In conversation with Reena Mital.

Tell us about Hemlon Synthetics?

We started Hemlon in 1987, for manufacturing polyester textured yarns. Over the last seven years, we decided to expand our horizons and focussed on value-added products which are used by the industry, but manufacturers have had to depend on imports till now.

What value-added yarns do you manufacture?

We realised that the market for polyester stretch yarns has a lot of potential. In the last decade, stretch has been introduced to a number of dailywear apparel for better comfort and fit. This is especially so in denims, bottomweights, and even tops and blouses. High end brands opt for super stretch fabrics. So we began making and offering polyester stretch yarns.

A second segment that we entered into last year was air textured yarn (ATY). This finds applications in sewing thread, sportswear, home furnishings, technical textiles. Here too, we offer the stretch version of ATY. This year, we have introduced dual core yarn, which is used in super stretch fabrics. This is the first time that anyone in India is making this product, for spinning mills. We use a lot of Invista products, which lend value to the yarns.

What is the benefit of dual core yarns over normal stretch yarns?

Let me explain this with an example. In case of denim fabric made using normal stretch yarns, the fabric loses elasticity after some time, and the apparel loses shape.

Yarn and fabric makers have been looking for solutions to this problem. Lot of R&D has been going on in this segment. Hemlon, alongwith Invista, worked for three years to develop this unique dual core yarn, which lends long-lasting stretch property to a fabric. Moreover, we offer this yarn in special packages which a spinner can use easily. Response has been overwhelming. We expect demand for this yarn to grow manifold in the coming times.

Why did you identify Invista as your partner?

Invista is a pioneer in stretch versions, and has to offer a lot of different products for different segments. So, they were the ideal partner. For the next season, we plan to offer a lot of new products with Coolmax, Thermolite, etc, and expect good demand in the market. In fact, it is not just Invista, we work jointly with all our customers to understand their requirements and develop products accordingly.

Air texturised yarn is quite new to the market. Can you tell us more about ATY?

There are a few manufacturers and consumers of ATY in the country. What we are doing different is trying to evaluate the use of stretch ATY in denim and bottomweights industry. A second application of ATY which is still unexplored is in technical textiles. One such application is an alternative of core spun used as sewing thread. We have the first installations in India to manufacture this specialised yarn. The entire sewing thread industry in the country today has to import core spun yarns. This filament alternative to core spun yarns offers many advantages.

I believe core spun yarn manufacturing did not pick up in the country as it required huge investments in integrated spinning. Core spun yarns do not offer product flexibility as these are manufactured in bulk. Our filament based yarns can be made in smaller lots as per customer specifications. And the improvement in sewability speed is immense. This is much needed when garmenters are using the latest sewing technologies that demand materials that can match the sewing speeds.

I believe in the next six months this product will find a very big market in India. The European market is consuming this specialised yarn, it will happen in India too. The third application of ATY is in automotive fabric segment. A lot of automotive fabric is imported into the country because we do not have standard automotive yarns supply. The few automotive fabric makers in the country have to import the yarns from Germany, Japan, Taiwan. Today, Ahmedabad boasts of a fairly strong automotive fabric manufacturing base, with more investments expected in the days to come. Many new automotive fabric manufacturing facilities are coming up, some of the existing players are expanding, with the aim of catering to the global automotive fabric market, and we are excited with the developments on this front. We have installed machines specifically for making automotive yarns, which we believe will become an important market in the next two years.

What is special about automotive yarns?

The most important aspect of automotive fabric is consistency in terms of colour pick-up. Whatever be the number of cars, one lakh to 10 lakh, the seat covers have to be the same consistently, over the years. To ensure this level of consistency, you need consistent yarn quality.

I can proudly say that at Hemlon we have a strong hold on our raw materials. We have a carefully selected set of suppliers, which is especially important to service the automotive fabric segment.With our technology and infrastructure, we can make yarns that offer this high level of consistency, time after time. In the next two months we will start supplying commercial orders. The product has been approved by the clients.

The market segments you mention are just coming up. You are confident of good growth here…Yes. I am confident that ATY will find its place in the market. Already a lot is being used in home furnishings. Just this month, we executed an order for fire retardant ATY. There are still so many segments that are not developed, we are targeting that.

So you are truly making in India for import substitution?

I would proudly say yes. This came about last year, when my father and we sat down to think what next we can do. He was very clear that we need to focus on what is not available to our customers. If we are able to satisfy their demand it will result in real growth for us. Our main focus is on what new we can give to our customers. For instance, as stretch yarns became the norm in the industry, we moved a step ahead and introduced coloured yarns in stretch version. We believe in staying ahead of the race, with new products and innovation as our trademark.

We are optimistic that with our investments in R&D and technology and with the capacities we have we will be able to join the Make in India campaign in the true sense.

What new can we expect in the coming months?

We have set up this plant just six months back to manufacture 800-900 tonnes of specialised, value-added yarns per month. We have achieved 100% capacity utilisation.We are already planning one more expansion, and will probably start construction next month. By October 2015 we will have added more lines.

This financial year we will clock Rs 100 crore of sales, and next March 2016, we expect to achieve sales of Rs 150-160 crore with a production capacity of 1000-1200 tonnes of yarns per month.

What would your message be for the commodity yarn segment of the industry?

I would like to tell the industry that we have huge potential ahead of us. The government is supporting this industry a lot. I think this is the time to focus on what new we can create, what new value additions we can give to our fabrics. We must move beyond competing in the saturated commodity segment where undercutting and thin margins are the norm. I wish the industry the best of luck for the coming 3-4 years. This is the right time to make investments and identify the opportunities we have.