Interview with Mr. Tushar Patel

If the economy turns around then good, at least the segment that we are in and that is linked to the supply of various types of fabrics that ultimately end up into the Automobile / Tyre / Conveyor Belt Industry is directly linked with the infrastructure growth of India and is in quite a way an import substitute product category. Therefore, if there is no growth in the economy in 12-13 we will also see a mellow year.

I see a growth in the nonwoven fabrics segment. Still very few people in this in India and internationally there is huge scope. Further, India could itself be a huge consumer for so many grades of nonwoven fabrics in the coming years. Nonwoven bags will be replacing Plastic. Hospitals/ Food outlets will ultimately be using disposable linen like all over the world. And the automobile sector still relies majorly on imports for all nonwoven components that they consume. Sanrhea is mainly supplying fabrics to the Tyre, Conveyor Belt and Rubber Component Industry. Though the immediate year still looks a little difficult, the coming years certainly look good and I see tremendous prospects. At Sanrhea we have decided to play within the field but have started concentrating on fabrics for the bonding of very specialized and critical rubber components/products. All our future growth is targeted towards that.

Lack of awareness and in depth knowledge of the diversity within the field that fall under the broad based terminology of “Industrial / Technical Textiles “. Only when this is achieved can the policy makers can build a framework to make a proper awareness of this field and draft out proper policies to promote it and make it grow. Today, there is a big hype made up about the technical Textile Industry, but has anybody really tried to go into the depths of the problems faced by the existing few players? I feel if the right support is given then this would work out to be an ideal field for the MSME sector.

I do see a lot of foreign technology transferring into India in this field in the coming years. However, more so I would not be surprise seeing a lot of mergers or Joint Ventures between established Indian players in the industrial textile field with much larger foreign players who now see India as a very high potential future prospect. Not only have the markets in the western world fallen, but India is a growing and technologically advancing country with a large untapped internal consumption building up. Foreign players will be seen making tie-ups locally to not only reestablish out of their falling markets but to secure future growth.

Draft a policy that gives special benefits to the MSME sector entering this field, facilitate the availability of good cheap land not too far away from cities for such entrants (this is a major hurdle). Moreover, make a policy that protects these MSME’s from being arm-twisted into supplying unending supplier credit to their customers who are normally large multinationals, and see how this industry flourishes. The private sector has all the enterprise and exposure.