Encouraging market demand for machines in 2014
Dr. Gabriele Checchini is more Indian than many of us. He has been visiting India since 1970 and has travelled the length and breadth of the country. He has been responsible for much of Savio’s success in India. Under his leadership Savio has emerged a market leader for winders and twisters with a very strong presence in the domestic market.
Savio India Ltd. has its manufacturing unit located in Coimbatore. It was set up with the idea of providing world class Savio products specific to India’s textile market. In 2008, the unit started manufacturing two-for-one twisters (TFOs) for supply to the local market. Today, Savio’s Indian plant has become the global manufacturing hub for TFOs. India is the only location in which TFOs are manufactured and exported all across the world, says Dr. Gabriele Checchini, Managing Director and CEO, Savio India Ltd.
Savio India’s plant on the outskirts of Coimbatore covers a vast area with ample space available for future expansion. The plant is primarily an assembly unit for TFOs. The company sources most of the components locally from quality suppliers, with a few critical components still being imported directly from Europe.
“2014 has been a remarkable year for Savio in India. We are currently operating at more than double which we had initially budgeted for the current year. We have bagged some major projects during the current year and we are working overtime to meet the market demand”, says Mr. Checchini.
The company meets the growing local and overseas demand by supplying state-of-art Savio machinery. Savio TFOs, which are produced in Coimbatore, are designed specifically for customers looking for a significant reduction in labor and energy, and, thanks to its features, this twister is well accepted both in domestic and international markets.
Savio India started commercial production of TFOs in 2008. Since then the company has supplied over 70,000 spindles of its success TFO models COSMOS and SIRIUS. The company is also commercialising in the Indian market the “POLAR” winder produced in Italy. Savio currently has its strong presence in the Indian market for winders with almost two lakh spindles running at various customer locations. A big part of the winders running in India are of the “LINK type”. The last model introduced into the market is “POLAR/I DIRECT link system”.
Savio has been the first to believe in full automation to overcome labour shortage, cut running costs and enhance the quality of the end product. The success of its I-DLS (link) model is such that it has surpassed the traditional round magazine models in sales volume.
The Savio plant in Coimbatore has a showroom for display of a wide variety of machines, manufactured locally as well as imported from Savio Italy. Indian customers can make use of the facilities to check, make trials and attend dedicated training courses. Savio has also a dedicated service team which provides complete technical assistance, rapid detection of problems, trouble-shooting and improving the performance of its machines at the customer location through its strong aftersales team of 80 skilled engineers.
The Coimbatore plant also houses an electronic lab, textile testing laboratory with latest equipment for customers to test the yarn quality, yarn strength and other physical parameters. The company has a large spareparts store with both bonded and non-bonded warehousing facility. The EOU/EPCG customers can avail of concessions on customs duty on imported spare parts against the requisite customs documents.
Another interesting aspect of the Coimbatore plant is the number of women employees. The company employs over 400 people, of which more than 100 employees are women. Most of the women employees have been recruited from nearby villages. This has provided good opportunities for the local community and helped in improving their living condition.
To cater to the customers in the North, Savio set up a service station at Ludhiana in 2009. Local engineers are housed there to take care of erection and service needs. Stocks of essential parts are kept to cut short the maintenance time for over 1,000 Savio winders in operation there. 
Training is provided for the mill technicians periodically. Savio has such established service stations in Ahmedabad, Kolhapur, Guntur and Bhopal.
Savio’s key Indian customers include Ambika Cotton, Rajapalayam Group, GHCL, Nahar Group, Vardhman, Sutlej Industries, Loyal Group, Trident Group, Garg Acrylics, S T Cottex, SEL Manufacturing, Sanathan, Vitthal, Venkata Sivaparvati, Sakku Spg., Mittapalli, Sitaram and Gowthami. All of them consider the company’s advanced and automated models for either their greenfield or expansion projects.