Geron Card Clothing, which has made impressive inroads into the Indian market in recent times, is all set to showcase its expertise in card clothing products at India ITME 2016.
Speaking exclusively to The Textile Magazine, Mr. Ashutosh Gilra, the Chief Representative in India, said that the company is looking forward to the event with enthusiasm. “We are first time participants in the event. We are located at Hall 1, Stall A18. We have wide experience in participating in international fairs. We were also there recently at the Texfair trade show held in Coimbatore. We hope this edition of India ITME would be good for the participants who can showcase some form of value addition to their customers.”
The company has lined up some exciting new launches at the event. Elaborating further on the same, Mr. Gilra said: “We are world leaders in the manufacture and sales of card clothing. We shall showcase our two new products – the ‘Double Teeth’ cylinder wire and ‘Blue Diamond Series’ metallic card clothing – at India ITME 2016.”
Giving an overview of the company, Mr. Gilra said: “We are the world’s largest maker of card clothing with manufacturing units at two locations in China. We have an annual capacity of 50,000 sets. The company attained the current status in 1987, although one of our units started operating way back in 1965.”
The company has the world’s biggest R&D center, employing 100 engineers, 10 of them being Doctorates. The company also undertakes post-doctoral research work in collaboration with five technical universities in China.
Mr. Gilra added: “We became a public limited company in 2014 with our IPO handsomely over-subscribed. We were perhaps the only company to become public in the spinning accessories industry.”
Touching on factors that give the company its competitive edge, Mr. Gilra said: “We offer products with longer life, better performance and commercially make it easy for mills to buy from us.”
Geron has invested heavily in its production and research departments. The new products turned out are the result of such initiatives.
He further said that almost 6,400 mills globally buy its products. In India the company has been selling regularly to top names such as the Vardhman Group, SEL, Garg Acrylic, Birla Textile Mills, Arvind Shirting Division, Pratibha Syntex, Rajapalayam Mills and KPR Mills.
Mr. Gilra felt that focus on R&D, timely delivery, response to customer inputs and a dedicated team are the key strengths of the company. While the turnover of the card clothing division is approx Rs. 600 crores, its employee strength is around 1,200.
The company has a team of 15 engineers with vast experience in card clothing servicing taking care of technical support in the country. The company also has a service station in Guntur and is planning to open a few more in other parts of the country in the near future.
Reflecting on the company’s recent performance, Mr. Gilra stated: “2016 has been steady for us, which I think is good given the major downturn faced by spinning mills everywhere, with the exception of Vietnam. In India we were able to get into some very prestigious mills.”