Lakshmi Ring Travellers (LRT) is leaving no stone unturned to make its participation in ITMA 2019 a grand success, just as in the case with its participation in the premier textile event’s previous editions.
The company, which has been regularly participating in the event since 1999, had started its preparations for the event an year back. “Our stall design is ready. A marketing campaign has been going on for the last one year. We have been communicating to all our customers about our participation. We want it to be a very good fair for us,” Mr. J.M. Balaji, Head – Marketing, says in an exclusive interview.
Listing out the reasons why the fair is important for LRT, Mr. Balaji explains: “ITMA is important for us because it builds credibility to our brand. It has helped build our brand equity immensely. We started exporting in a big way in 2000 and ITMA helped us immensely. The entire ‘who’s who’ of the industry is there at the event and so makes it an ideal platform for the customers to understand that we are a global player. It has helped us reach out to customers worldwide and also to get agents worldwide. ITMA has helped us reach countries with limited spindlage such as Mauritius, Guatemala, Honduras, etc., with very limited number of mills, which otherwise would have been difficult. You quite literally get to meet the entire global textile industry under one roof at the event.”
The company has planned everything to the proverbial ‘T’ for the event. “Remember, it is a mega event and the visitors cannot be visiting all the stalls. We have ensured that the visit to our stall is recorded on their schedule, so that we wait for them specifically on a particular date and time during the show. It also helps the customer plan his visit. It’s a win-win situation for both of us,” he added.
Going into details regarding the product display at the exhibition, Mr. Balaji mentioned: “We have lined up a few products, which we will be revealing at the show. Customers can look forward to quite a lot of new products at ITMA.”
Talking about his company’s expectations from the event, he says, although the company participates in 4-5 other major exhibitions globally every year in places like Vietnam, Indonesia, Bangladesh, China and India, they receive visitors from within the country or from neighbouring countries. “However, with ITMA it is different. Our objective is before building the brand image, credibility and trust on the product. The second one is the launch of new products and also reach out to new markets and customers.”
Regarding export market, he said: “Before 2000 we had negligible exports and after that we have entered the global market in a big way. As everyone knows we are the largest ring traveller manufacturer in the world. Today exports contribute more than 50% of our turnover.”
Pointing out to the key global export markets of the company, Mr. Balaji said that in China, which has the largest spindle capacity globally, LRT is the number one ring traveller manufacturer from outside to sell in the country. “In China, which is a huge market, with a lot of players vying for their share of the pie, we will be definitely looking to increase our growth. Then there are other markets like Turkey where we have a small presence now, where we will be focusing on growing in the near future. We are also strong in markets like Bangladesh, Pakistan, Indonesia, Vietnam, Egypt as well as in South American countries. Today we export to over 30 countries and are the market leaders in most of them.”
Mr. Balaji felt that Bangladesh is one of the most promising markets given the substantial investments taking place in spinning. “Bangladesh imports a lot of yarn from other countries. While it has had temporary setbacks, we are confident that it will be a growing market for us going forward.”
In FY 2018-19, Mr. Balaji observed that the company has been clocking significant growth year-on-year. As far as exports are concerned, it was a good year for LRT. Talking about its competition, he said: “It is a combination of factors. The first one is performance. Second is delivery. Wherever in the world you are, we have the capability to deliver in shortest possible time. Then finally our excellent after sales service”. The company has a robust after sales service set up comprising of its own engineers, as well as agents and sub agents in different countries.
Finally, as a parting note, Mr. Balaji said: “We have a spacious 36 square meters stall at ITMA 2019, Hall-7, Stall No. C-125. We look forward to visiting all visitors and our agents to our stall.”