By K. Gopalakrishnan
There is an interesting story behind every successful company, and here is one such story of Kusters Calico, a joint venture set up in 1997 between the Eduard Kusters Maschinenfabrik GmbH & Co. KG. (EKK) of Germany and Calico Industrial Engineers.
Mr. Venkat Reddy, who is currently the CEO of Kusters Calico Machinery Pvt. Ltd. (KCML), joined the parent company in Germany in 1994 just after completing his graduation. In 1996, he was sent to India to handle the joint venture. In a sense, he has been part of the Indian JV from day one even before the plant was constructed. In the last 15 years, he has steered Kusters Calico through the best and worst phase, and today he feels more confident of the future of his company than ever before.
KCML builds machines and installations for wet finishing of woven and knitted fabrics. The company has pioneered the world of process technologies, process automation systems, vacuum systems and dosing stations in textile finishing. It offers the entire range of machines for wet processing, including bleaching, dyeing, washing and mercerizing range.
The Kusters Group decided to enter the Indian market identifying an opportunity for modernization and growth in the processing segment. The company did fare well in the initial years, but the market did not grow as much as expected by the company. In 2005, the Jagenberg Group in Germany took over the Kusters Group and subsequently in 2007 sold the textile business to the Benninger Group.
This was a very challenging phase for Kusters Calico in India, recollects Mr. Reddy. With the selling of the textile business, Kusters Calico had no one to look upto for future technologies and products. Also with Benninger acquiring Kusters globally, they start directly competing with Kusters Calico both in the Indian and other global markets.
But it was this challenge that forced the company to rethink and device a strategy which has today paid rich dividends.
“At that point we had the option of either downgrading of our technology and make it cheaper so that our machines are easily affordable. This was the easiest choice. The other option was to upgrade the technology and products and compete with the best in the industry. We took the bold decision of moving up the value chain by upgrading and improving our technology and products and on hind sight we feel this was a very good decision”, says Mr. Reddy.
Another interesting aspect was that till 2007, Kusters Calico was focusing mainly on the Indian domestic market and had hardly any exports. With the selling of Kusters’ Textile business globally, the Indian entity became independent and was open to explore global markets. This was an opportunity that Kusters Calico capitalized on, and today 70 per cent of the company’s total business comes from exports and the balance 30 per cent from the Indian domestic market.
Says Mr. Reddy: “In the last 4 years we have practically developed the entire range of machines and invested heavily in R&D. The fact that globally we are now a preferred machinery supplier goes to show that we are technically on par or superior than the rest”.
Kusters Calico exports its machines to all major textile markets across the globe, including Turkey, Bangladesh, Thailand, Iran, Malaysia, China and South America. Kusters Calico has particularly established its strong presence in Turkey. Today, its machines are running in most textile processing mills across the world. “The strength comes from the ground work in the last 15 years which has helped us establish a strong export business in the last 3 to 4 years time. Our customers value us as we are technically progressive. We expect our share in exports to increase further. The response has been excellent from all the markets we have entered so far and customers are now going for repeat orders”, says Mr. Reddy.
This success in the global markets has helped
improve the company reputation even in the Indian market. Its has won most of the major green field projects in the last few years. Kusters Calico’s long list of Indian customers include Arvind, Premier, Dinesh, Lovely Fabrics, S.Kumar’s, Bombay Dyeing, Raymond, Century, Bhilwara, Zenith, Hindoostan, Shri Krishna, United Bleachers, Balkrishna Industries, Super Sales Agencies, Hanung Textile, Soma Textile, Asarwa Mills, LNJ Denim, NSL and Maharaja Shree Umaid Mills. Today the company commands nearly 70-80 per cent marketshare in the wet processing segment.
Kusters Calico is continuously working on upgrading its products and technologies to make its machines energy efficient and environment friendly. The company works with the best global component suppliers to ensure prompt aftersales and service support to customers both within India and in overseas markets. “Our core area will be wet processing, and whatever development we do will be within this product segment. We are also continuously investing in upgrading our manufacturing infrastructure”, says Mr. Reddy.
The company has won awards for R&D and exports from TMMA India. Mr. Reddy is quite optimistic about the future prospects in the processing segment in India and other global markets. “We believe that we are responsible for our future. We have to work hard and make sure that we establish ourselves well in all the markets and make sure that customers are happy”, he adds.