Sanjay Raut
President (technical and new businesses)
Garware Technical Fibres Ltd
TT: What have you noticed about the demand for technical textiles fibres since the covid-19 was categorised as a pandemic? Could you tell us how muchhas been the rise in demand? How much do you see this rising over the next 6-9 months?
With the extended lockdown due to covid-19 in place over the past two months, the overall demand of technical textiles is muted in line with many other sectors. However, as things get to normalise, we should see demand uptick especially for segments like meditech, agrotech, Geotech and buildtech. With the covid-19 expected to remain, we would see lot many changes in our normal lifestyle. And herein, technical textiles with innovative properties would be preferred vs plain textiles.
TT: Do you think this would be restricted to the pandemic, or do you think this is going to continue in the future as well? Please elaborate on this.
The post-covid situation will be a new normal. covid-19 has and will bring about many changes in our lifestyle, the way we work and do business. For example, the focus on safety and hygiene will be intense and this will aid in the growth of meditech. Infrastructure development will take precedence leading to growth in Geotech and buildtech. With need for healthy food and focus by the government on fisheries and protected cultivation, we should see growth in agrotech.
TT: TT / nonwovens have always been driven by innovation. What innovations do you foresee in the near future?
Innovation is key for technical textiles to grow. While there have been innovations, the appetite to consume these innovative products had been low. We would now see the adoption of many differentiated products. For e.g. antibacterial bedsheets. Similarly, anticovid coatings could be developed with a wide variety of applications.
TT: What is the R&D that is being undertaken at your company at the moment? What are the driving factors for these R&D?
At Garware, our focus is and will be on delivering innovative application focused solutions. Our R&D team along with the sales teams work in conjunction with our customers to understand their business, pain areas and thereof solutions to alleviate the same. We work on both technology as well as product innovations. The technology innovations can be used across a variety of application-based products. Our mission to "Provide innovative application focused products to enhance the value of our customers" has been the key driving force of everything we do at Garware. This holds true more for our R&D team and staying true to this path has led us to many innovation gains and increased acceptance of our differentiated products by our customers.
Published on: 02/07/2020
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