Card clothing is absolutely indispensable for carding textile fibres for the spinning process, which, in turn, enables production of yarn for all the limitless varieties of fibres. The cutting-edge technology of wires is considered by many as the backbone of card clothing. This requires a fineness of skill and technique that can only come through years of accumulated experience, all correlated to Lakshmi Card Clothing (LCC) of Coimbatore, which was founded way back in 1961. Over the years LCC has gradually become the most advanced and efficient manufacturer of flexible card clothing and metallic wires in India. The company’s success, mainly due to the constantly high quality of its products, was made possible using the finest of raw materials combined with efficiency and modernity of its production facilities and the professionality of its employees.
The R&D cell at LCC is constantly attuned to market needs. A team of researchers keeps experimenting with fresh ideas and technologies. Making significant breakthroughs in tooth geometry, surface treatment and understanding contemporary fibres is a day-to-day affair at its ultra-modern facility located in Coimbatore.
LCC’s portfolio consists of a wide range of wires, tops and flexible card clothing. Every day, wires are made to suit conventional/complicated requirement of the customers, depending on the type of fibre being processed and also to meet the desired quality parameters. In fact, LCC is one of the few companies in the world that manufactures card clothing to process every fibre, be it, natural or man-made. The company provides reliable solution for every type of carding machine, be it conventional cards or super high production cards.
LCC is an ISO 9001:2008 certified company and endorses best practices at its manufacturing site. The production facility is currently at its maximum capacity that could produce 600 sets per month.
The company expects the spinning industry to perform well in the years to come and so is rigorously gearing up to meet the future demands. The Coimbatore site is being restructured to increase the existing production volume through a series of modernizing activities and lean manufacturing policies. The company production is expected to increase by 30 per cent by the year end.
The company supplies around 100 sets a month to OEM business and around 500 sets for aftermarket business. Its Aftermarket Division is the biggest growth driver. The LCC team consists of more than 50 trained Sales & Service Executives strategically located to meet the higher standards of customer-oriented service. Voltas, the agent for LCC in India, has another 75 people stationed across the nation for service and maintenance of carding machines.
Good demand for LCC products from neighbouring countries like Indonesia, Thailand and Bangladesh is evident in the last few years. Overall the company has customers in more than 30 countries worldwide and exports nearly 150 sets every month. The rest of 350 sets is strictly set aside for domestic consumption.
“We export around 30% of our production volumes. The export numbers have been curbed because our domestic customers are more important,” said Mr. S. Harishankar, LCC Joint Managing Director.
LCC’s customer day event proves most successful
Recently, LCC, jointly with its agent Voltas, conducted a series of seminars in Chandigarh and Ludhiana on their latest offerings to the textile industry. The seminars were aimed at sharing knowledge and technical know-how with customers to achieve increased productivity and better efficiency.
Mr. K. Gandhi Raj, General Manager – National Sales of LCC, inaugurated the seminars by highlighting the importance of cutting-edge technology not just for survival and growth of the current generation but for a better tomorrow.
At the customer seminars, LCC assured its customers of excellent after-sales and service. The company reputation for ‘On Time Delivery’ was at stake due to a number of factors. With the surge in demand, the company had not been able to deliver within the time-frame in 2014.
During the event, Mr. Hari Shankar stressed upon his company’s renewed vision. He said: “The year 2014 was a difficult one for LCC, and we realized that the market is moving at a much faster pace compared to the previous years. We have made a lot of changes in products and also in the organization. All the issues faced by the customers in terms of long waiting periods have been resolved. LCC will continue to be customer-driven and more market-centric than ever before.”
The entire team of LCC and Voltas were immensely pleased with the response received from the two-day event. More than 500 customers from Chandigarh and Ludhiana, who attended the event, hailed the efforts made by the top-level management to address the current issues. Also, customers were quite happy being educated with the latest offerings in carding vertical that could help them save energy and to increase output efficiency.