As Director Mr. Jayesh Mistry points out, today Perfect Equipments can proudly claim to be enjoying the position of a world market leader for its fully automatic cot grinding machine model ACG 600-EL for which they have several patents worldwide
With its origin in 1974, the brand ‘Perfect’ was founded to cater to one need – the production of the carding flat bar, which was immediately received very well by the customers. Emboldened by the success of this venture, the company immersed itself in the manufacture of textile machinery accessories and the eighties saw the inception of Perfect Equipments Private Limited, a company dedicated to the manufacturing of card servicing equipment. Today, the company manufactures a range of servicing equipment as well as roll shop machinery for ring frames, speed frames, draw frames, flat mounting machines, wire mounting machines, etc.
As founder Mr. Jayesh Mistry points out, today Perfect Equipments can proudly claim to be enjoying the position of a world market leader for its fully automatic cot grinding machine model ACG 600-EL for which they have several patents worldwide. It is a feather in the company’s cap as a result of relentless research, innovation and design. Perfect Equipments has amassed an impressive clientele over the years, acting as a leading supplier to several of their clients. The company, as an extension to business activities, forayed into the production of capital machinery and started manufacturing blow room and cards. Their recent entry into the field of nonwoven machinery through an association with Bonino of Italy, among others, has paved the way for the production of a specialised form of carding machines. These are meant for nonwoven fabrics, recycled waste and surgical cotton, which have been the target of high demand in South Asia countries and India.
The Right Formula for Success
Despite their phenomenal success in the textile business over the years, the company adheres to a humble and ethical modus operandi, with business profits no longer being their sole priority. Sustainability, ethical manufacturing practices and a preference to uphold consumer satisfaction and company reputation in the market whilst maintaining a low profile have been the guiding forces behind the company’s success in recent years. A recent interview with the company’s Director Jayesh Mistry revealed that the company has begun to incorporate recycling into its manufacturing process so as to make up for the scarcity of raw material as well as fulfil their duty towards the environment.
Both recycling and sustainability are practices that an increasing number of companies are adopting nowadays due to the lower costs and the positive impact on the environment that it causes. As it stands, there currently exists a massive demand in the market for textile machinery with customers spread out across the world, hailing from countries such as Bangladesh, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, etc. and with a significant domestic market. As a result, Perfect Equipments has invested much into its huge state-of-the-art production unit with machinery imported from USA, Europe and Japan, which produces their carding machines, recycling line and nonwoven lines and is inclusive of plants that recycle hard waste and cotton waste.
Facing Challenges with Sound Infrastructure
Perfect Equipments has manufacturing facilities spread over 1,00,000 sq. feet in Ahmedabad. The facilities are all consistently operated at peak production capacity but for a few minor setbacks. Business has been booming, especially in the last two years, and the company has received such a large influx of orders that they have resorted to opening a new factory so that they may do justice to their commitments. Currently, they are in the process of slowly expanding themselves, and will subsequently expand their production capacity in the coming years. However, they have indeed had their fair share of adversities in the past, but are defined by their adaptability which has often lessened the impact of unforeseen disasters. Take the pandemic, for instance.
Mr. Mistry tells us that while the company did encounter a few setbacks as a result of the pandemic and the subsequent lockdowns, they were not as adversely affected as most other companies in the textile business. The reason for this, he believes, can be attributed to the company’s strong financial planning as well as the importance they place on cultivating excellent relationships with their workforce. Indeed, the company regards their workers as a part of a larger family and strives to ensure that their workplace remains a safe space for their employees. This results in high levels of employee satisfaction. Regarding their employees as a highly valued company asset has nurtured a healthy employer-employee relationship and led to virtually no conflict when the pandemic struck.
The workers were crystal clear on what their responsibilities were and operated with the company’s best interests in mind. They were provided with a significant number of benefits, including salary and food bonuses, despite there not being any work for a few months. Thus, the company’s insistence on keeping their employees satisfied has more than paid off in the long run. But despite their many ethical policies, Perfect Equipments did face difficulty in procurement of raw material. The damage dealt out by the pandemic was so grave that Mistry believes that the supply chain is yet to fully recover from the pandemic’s ill-effects. It has unfortunately led to them not being able to fulfil their commitments on a few occasions.
Cementing the Value of Trust
Meanwhile, the company has gained solid reputation as one that is quality-oriented and upholds customer satisfaction instead of just financial profits. Mistry is of the opinion that once a company has reached a certain level of success, they must dedicate themselves towards fulfilling their commitments towards their customers as well as upholding their standards of quality. The company’s adherence to this principle over the years has led to long-term trust being cultivated amongst their customer base, which they have rightly recognised as incredibly important in their line of business. Today, the brand ‘Perfect’ has cemented itself as a trustworthy and reliable brand in the minds of their clients.
Creating a Global Footprint
The company’s large-scale success in the export market can be attributed to the excellent leadership and strategic prowess of Jayesh Mistry, who entered the business around 30 years ago.
At this time there was the lack of a team with the tactical strength and expertise required to handle foreign customers, which led to a virtually non-existent export market where the companies’ exports constituted of perhaps 1-2% of their total production capacity. Hence, Mistry recognised the sheer potential offered in the area of exports and decided to learn the ropes over the years, and engineer the change he wished to see. Through his travels, he accumulated important skill-sets such as how to increase their customers, studying foreign markets and how to approach international clients.
After years of analysing and gathering skills, he decided against tackling the entire export market at large and started by focusing on one country at a time. He would direct the entirety of his efforts towards ensuring that the market in any one place was under their control before moving on to another country, and repeating the same practice until he was personally satisfied. His business strategy paid off greatly with countries like Thailand, Vietnam, Spain, Canada, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Pakistan, Mexico, Argentina and China turning out to be successes. In fact, Mistry says that any country in the world where there is a presence of the textile market, you will find Perfect Equipments is involved.
Today, their export market has grown so significantly that it makes for about 55% of their production capacity. With their export market being larger than their domestic share, the brand has made an excellent name for itself in the global textile market. Mistry recalls the stoppages of shipments that were imposed during the time of the pandemic, which made exporting products impossible for a certain period. Once the situation began to recover, the shipments resumed and the company was hit with a huge inflow of good orders from significant clients overseas. The strengthening of the company’s export market is something Mistry long regards as his greatest achievement since he joined their ranks three decades ago.
Policies for Growth
With this established presence and tactical expertise, one questions what exactly it is about Perfect Equipments that makes their customers levitate towards them without any regret. First of all, the company’s success can be a result of the fact that there are very few companies in India that manufacture card servicing equipment, which by default gives Perfect Equipments control over a large portion of the domestic market. Additionally, they have the practice of never taking employee feedback lightly and implement good suggestions immediately if it is discovered that doing so would lead to significant improvement. As the company is family-owned, it has the freedom to implement any kind of productive change immediately, while doing the same in many other companies is an arduous process as the suggestion would have to get approval from many levels of management.
This quick adaptive nature of the company has led to the effective handling of many potential disasters. With a smoothly functioning and constantly innovating in-house research and development unit, Perfect Equipments has not only developed the most state-of-the-art service machinery but has also extended help to smaller institutions and companies by providing them with their machinery. This is done in the spirit of social responsibility and to increase all-round familiarity with the ‘Perfect’ brand of machinery. An ethical modus operandi is something the company strives towards, whether its responsibility towards their employees, their customers, the environment or society at large. A company that views profit-making as a secondary priority whilst upholding their reputation as ethical and reliable is indeed hard to find.
Meeting the Growing Demand
When asked about the recent boom in textile sales, Mistry believes that there will remain an ever-growing demand for textiles, seeing as it is a basic human need. The reason the demand will continue to grow is because of China’s stronghold over the textile industry and their practice of flooding the market with expensive goods of inferior quality. The only available alternatives to Chinese goods are European textiles which boast optimum quality, but are unfortunately extremely expensive. For this reason, the consumer is torn between these two options and does not have a realistic choice.
Perfect Equipments, however, boasts products that can match European quality and sells them at a very reasonable price. This has been the reason behind their tidal wave of success in the last few years. Mistry adds that Indian companies have access to raw materials, necessary resources, brain power and produce good products with good quality while they are manufactured ethically, thus presenting themselves as a good alternative to Chinese products. Looking at the future, Mistry is very optimistic about the company’s growth. Their recent investment in technical textiles as well as in nonwovens has proved to be a good move due to rising demand, both domestic and international.
For the time being, there exist no plans to go for an IPO and the company is perfectly satisfied with maintaining a low profile, whilst making a significant impact in the global market. They have reason to believe that they will make strides in technology in the coming years and expect to see a growth in turnover of 80-100% in the next five years with confidence in the current government. A strong ethical compass combined with strategic brilliance is a formula that spells unfathomable success, which Perfect Equipments has indeed achieved. One can only wait and watch how the company takes the coming years by storm under the watchful eye of Jayesh Mistry.