Textile Magazine spoke to Dharmesh Desai, Chairman and Managing Director, Meera Industries, who shared detailed insights about the company’s performance in FY 2021, its product range, performance in the technical textile segment, participation in Techtextil 2021 and future plans.
Established on September 25, 2006, Meera Industries is an ISO registered company which started its journey by manufacturing a small POT TFO twister. From there on it has come quite a long way. Now it manufactures a large variety of twisting and winding machines related to various textile sectors such as fabrics, carpets, technical textile, fishing equipment, coating, industrial threads, belting and cords, artificial grass, safety products, FIBC, etc. Speaking about the key achievements of the company during FY 2021, Dharmesh Desai, Chairman and Managing Director, Meera Industries, says: “The beginning of FY 2021 was painted with passive sentiments and words like lockdown and slowdown.”
“Along with everyone else we also had our share of gloomy days, weeks and months. But we believe that a problem is a chance for you to do your best and therefore decided to focus on what we are best at, which is innovation,” he adds.
“We decided to go full throttle on new product development projects which had been languishing for a long time due to lack of attention during our normal and routine operations. The focus on core values really paid us well. At the end of this financial year we were ready with a new mix of products with advanced features,” Desai informs.
New Products
“Along with many minor developments, we can categorically say that we developed two new products which can be marked as major milestones. They are the CT-260 cabler and twister with individual tape drive system for BCF carpet segment and the DTX-300 twister with precision winding for the technical textile segment. There are very few manufacturers for this kind of twisting machine across the globe. As such, we anticipate good success with these two models in the near future,” he adds. Meera Industries has gained quite a reputation in the technical textile market segment and has developed a large variety of twisting and winding machines related to technical textiles.
The has also been supplying to some of the leading technical textile companies in the country like SRF, Mehler, Fenner, Shakti Cords and Kanpur Plastipack, among others. “Some of our important machines for the technical textile industries are ring twisters, TPRS one step S | Z twister, DTX direct twisting and precision winding, carpet cabler, high-speed twister, etc. These machines hold strong acceptance in FIBC, fishing nets, belting and cords, industrial threads, artificial grass, safety products, etc.,” Desai states.
The technical textile business is a niche segment with many global players aggressively competing for a share of business in India.
Maintaining the Lead
Given this scenario, why should a buyer consider sourcing from Meera Industries? What are the advantages that it offers? Replying to these questions Desai states that the technical textile segment is going to be huge due to its variety of applications and therefore there is room for all players. “We have our own share and are confident that we will win over other global companies in our segment. We understand that quality is so generic that no company would want to buy even a slightly underrated product if it does not meet the specified technical requirements. Therefore we can confidently say that our products meet international quality standards. We also have the 3Cs worked out right i.e. customisation, convenience and cost which help us win the trust of customers,” Desai says.
“Customers from the technical textile sector keep innovating when it comes to processes that demand lot of micro level adaptation in the machines. We are flexible and we help our clients by customising these micro level changes. As these machines are available in India, there is a level of comfort that a customer feels since it helps reduce the time lags for trials, production, delivery and after-sales service. Finally, compared to global players, our prices are better placed. So we consider it a win-win for everybody paving the way for a self-reliant India,” he elaborates.
Sharing details about the company’s manufacturing capacities Desai informs that the next five years will be a booming economy for India as the world economic fundamentals have shifted from being global to being local. “We are also preparing ourselves on similar lines and constructing about 80,000 sq. feet of new building space as a part of our expansion plan for 2021-2022. We have also added several new machines to improve our infrastructure. With this new infrastructure operating from the beginning of next year, we will have double the capacity as compared to what we have now,” he says.
A Bigger Footprint
Talking about some major Indian and global installations, Desai continues, “We are a proud supplier to some of the leading companies in India and abroad. Some of them are SRF Ltd., Dodhia Synthetics Ltd., Kanpur Plastipack Ltd., Fenner Conveyor Belting (P) Ltd., Carpetlux MCHJ, Hilos y Mechas S.A. de C.V., Tecelagem são Francisco Limitada, etc.” And as regards the forthcoming Techtextil 2021 trade show, Desai says that they would definitely participate as always and also because they share a very comfortable equation with the organiser, Messe Franfurt India. “The event offers wide reach for national and international customers. The show has, in fact, helped Meera Industries in accessing markets related to technical textiles,” Desai states. The company will present its new products at the show.
The Way Ahead
And as for the technical textile market in 2021 and beyond, Desai is pretty upbeat about its growth curve. “There are good things happening around us. The market world over is picking up gradually, the vaccination programme is underway and travel restrictions are being lifted. We hope that the market demand for the twisting machine will turn around with a V-shaped curve. The world economy has seen an influx of trillions of dollars of new money being pumped into the system by various governments.
As pointed out earlier, the economic narrative has seen a shift from being global to being local. The government is incentivising industries for new local infrastructure build-up. All this will lead to massive demand generation in various industries, including textiles,” he says.