Birla Cellulose of the Aditya Birla Group, currently spearheading a unique initiative called the LIVA Accredited Partners Forum (LAPF) to scale up the textile value chain, will now kick off a joint marketing drive to extend reach of its partners in the international markets.
“We will help the LAPF partners to promote their products at the international level by enabling them to take part in different marketing fora, apart from helping them with design developments and technology,” said Mr. Manohar Samuel, President, Marketing and Business Development at Birla Cellulose.
He was talking at the LAPF conclave in New Delhi, organised as part of the ongoing efforts to help the partners reach out directly to the leading women’s wear exporters and international brands.
After launching the LAPF to aggregate the top talent in the fabric industry, Birla Cellulose has roped in leading players like Shreeji, Mafatlal, Mercury, Karuna Tex, Svarn Tex, MI Industries and VSM among its 250 plus partners.
Apart from enabling the LAPF partners to join the international marketing fora, Birla Cellulose will provide them a chance to promote their products through special drives like Market Week and Mill Week, being held abroad, Mr. Samuel said.
The conclave of the LAPF partners and international brands at Delhi NCR, the capital for the garment industry in India, was held in collaboration with the Society of Noida Apparel Export Cluster.
Around 40 LAPF partners showcased their innovations in LIVA fabrics to 160 garment exporters, including international brands such as Marks & Spencer, Macys and GAP, apart from Shahi Export, Orient Craft, Pearl Global and Richa & Co. Top buying houses such as Triburg, Impulse, LI Fung and Asmara, and domestic brands like Biba and ITC were present.
Mr. Samuel further observed: “India is the second biggest textile hub in the world with a huge potential for man-made cellulosic fibre (MMCF) clothing. The conclave in Noida provided an open platform to integrate leaders in the value chain from spinner to fabricator to garmented & brands to achieve excellence.”
The conclave also saw the unveiling of the LIVA Spring Summer 2017 Collection with innovations like Modal Knitted slubs, Modal Denim, Lurex embellishments in LIVA blends & Modal Yoga Wear. The LIVA SS 17 would be showcasing the collection in two unique themes, namely, Tropical Trails and Leisure Luxe.
Birla Cellulose launched its fabric brand LIVA in March 2015 in line with the vision of establishing connect with the end-consumer in the viscose staple fibre business.
LIVA accredited partners are closely working with Birla Cellulose on a variety of projects. Fabrics from LAPF are of world-class quality as they follow the LIVA Accredited norms & process guidelines. The Birla Cellulose team hopes to continue the collaboration with LAPF on innovation, product perfection and speedy service so that India becomes the most preferred textile hub for MMCF in the years to come.
With an objective to assure quality focused offerings to the end consumer, Birla Cellulose, in association with the Garment Exporters Association of Rajasthan, hosted its first LAPF conclave in Jaipur on August 7, 2015, which was well attended by the who’s who of the Rajasthan garment industry. Coimbatore witnessed the second LAPF conclave on December 4, 2015, where over 200 leading textile players, mainly from the southern States, made their presence felt.
“There are over 250 partners now and our endeavour is to add 20 more by the end of this fiscal. We will have the fourth conclave in Mumbai before March, as the culmination of the current drive,” Mr. Samuel added.
Recently LIVA focused its attention on the Fashion & Designer fraternity with the LIVA Protégé, a national-level designer hunt, which put the spotlight on the emerging designers. This had an overwhelming response with more than 2,500 entries across 12 cities and top 50 fashion institutes. The grand finale witnessed the most innovative, compelling and unique styles by top 12 finalists from India’s top fashion schools, namely, NIFT, NID, Pearl Academy, BD Somani and Raffles.