Shima Seiki Mfg. Ltd., a leading Japanese Textile Machines manufacturer and Voltas Limited – A Tata Enterprise, India’s leading Room Air Conditioning and Engineering brand last year entered into a distribution agreement for sales and marketing of Shima’s products in India. This co-operation is expected to strengthen both Voltas and Shima’s reach across the rapidly expanding Indian textile industry.
Their partnership has successfully launched an Experience Centre in Ludhiana last year and this year, they have entered the Knitwear city Tirupur and opened up their Experience Centre on 22nd of April 2019. The ‘Shima Seiki Experience Centre’ has been set-up at Karuvampalayam in Tirupur with an objective’ to enable its customers to operate, use and experience the versatility of the whole garment and shaping machine.’
The Centre was inaugurated by Padma Shri Dr. A Sakthivel, Vice Chairman of AEPC and Chairman of Poppys Group. Subsequently, there was a seminar on Total Fashion System and Wholegarment Technology at Poppys Hotel, which was inaugurated by Raja M Shanmugham, President, Tirupur Exporters Association.
The seminar was followed by a Fashion Show by AIC NIFT – TEA. The guests of honour at the event were Vivekanandan, President, SIIMKA, Dr. G Loganathan, Joint Secretary, ABAT, Gopalakrishnan and Treasurer of SIIMKA, Mezhiselvan, Vice President, ABAT.
The knitwear industry in India is expanding at a rapid speed. There is an ever increasing demand for knitted apparels. Not only major brands, but numerous designers have also incorporated knits into their clothing lines. The application of knitted products is also increasing and going beyond garments to home textiles, upholsteries, shoe uppers etc.
The Experience Centre has state-of-the-art machines that will not only help the customers understand total fashion and Whole garment technology, will also act as a local centre for education, hands-on training and post-sale support centre. The prime objective of the centre is to make the customer experience the Whole garment machines and find out for themselves the various possibilities to make whole range of garments directly from the machines. This innovation will help the industry save time as the garment is manufactured by the machines directly from the yarn. The whole garment machines can also give remarkable fashion and meet all quality guidelines in terms of drape, handle, finishing and more.
The centre is also equipped with a lab with high-tech ‘total fashion system’ where the customers can design their virtual sample in the computing devise provided in the lab and in the process, the time for sample making is reduced. At present, the customers have to go through multiple levels of approvals by making physical samples
The experience centre will also be utilised for having training and development activities on regular basis. With an existing Experience Centre in Ludhiana, this one in Tirupur is the second Experience Centre by Voltas, which is looking at creating a similar Experience Centr in Delhi in July. On successful completion of Delhi facility, Voltas is planning to open Experience Centres in other parts of the country as well.
The Voltas and Shima Seiki co-operation are focusing on leveraging Shima’s ability to provide leading edge products and the long standing expertise in ‘computerized flat knitting machines’, ‘WHOLEGARMENT® Machines and Total Fashion Systems’ while building on Voltas’s established sales and marketing network across the country.
Commenting on the association, Mitsuhiro Shima, President of Shima Seiki Mfg. Ltd., said, “We are happy to be associated with Voltas. This association adds the required market reach to our established portfolio of products and thus expands the company’s position as a market and technology leader. We are confident that this association for sales and marketing would bring a winwin situation for the two companies and our customers too.”
He further added, “Shima Seiki’s innovative concept enables the knitting machine in producing WHOLEGARMENT® knitwear in one entire piece, three-dimensionally. Consequently, it is a cost and time effective process. This fast catching trend across the world and the impact of the global technology will help increase efficiencies in textile manufacturing in India.”
C Kamatchisundaram, Vice President – Textile Machinery Division, Voltas Ltd. added, “This association would help us to offer truly world class solutions in flat knitting, WHOLEGARMENT® making process and Total Fashion Systems to the textile industry. Voltas’ sales and marketing strengths combined with leading edge products from Shima Seiki Mfg. Ltd. would make this a preferred choice for customers from the Indian textile industry.”
Building on this association, Voltas will continue to deepen and expand its regional business contacts leveraging on its relationship with customers across the entire textile value chain thus helping open up new customer segments in flat knitting and WHOLEGARMENT® making process aligned to Shima’s product range. Based on its long-standing and excellent customer relations, Voltas’s network would be the key contacts for theIndian customers for sales and marketing.
