The knitting industry is performing well in India, and encouraging growth trends are visible, according to Shalendra Vasudeva, Chief Marketing Officer, Indorama India Private Ltd (INVIYA), a Co-sponsor of Change Masters. Indorama India, part of Singapore-based Indorama Corporation, manufactures INVIYA, which is India’s first Made in India premium spandex fibre.
“INVIYA is growing. We are growing particularly in this (intimate apparel) segment also. There is a lot of growth in accessories and knitted fabric. So, for that you need narrow fabric articles like elastics, ribbons, tapes—which the industry needs to provide,” Vasudeva told on the sidelines of Change Masters, India’s largest intimate apparel conference for future leaders.
Indorama India offers spandex products under the brands — INVIYA, Stolid, and SnugFit that can cater to all possible applications of textiles — be it woven, knitting, warp knit fabric, circular knit fabric, elastic tapes, etc with a denier range of 10 to 1680. The company also offers ultra-fine deniers like 10D and 15D for premium/super-premium innerwear applications like polyamide and fine cellulosics.
“We also have product for the hygiene industry. We launched SnugFit last month. So, after a long time, India has a manufacturer who has all the products,” Vasudeva said. Speaking further about Stolid, he said, “It is the ideal spandex choice if customers are looking for a full dull spandex that reduces grin through effect.”
When asked about expansion plans, he said, “We are commissioning our third site now (for spandex) at Baddi in Himachal Pradesh. Investment is around $50 mn, which will give us an additional capacity of 900 tonnes per month.”
Informing more about the growth, Sandeep Shelke, CEO (Spandex Business) and Director (Indorama India Private Ltd), said, “If we look at our growth in the last five years, it has been phenomenal. We increased our capacity almost three times—from 500 tonnes per month to almost 1,400 tonnes per month now. And in another 3-4 months, we are going to bring another 900 tonnes per month additional capacity. Thus, our total capacity will be 2,300 tonnes per month.”
The company is now also looking for new uses of spandex. “For example, rubber can be replaced by spandex. There are some elastomeric yarns which can also be replaced,” said Shelke.
Talking about the sustainability aspect, Shelke said, “We are planning to start a new project in January-February next year. It would not be a typical waste recycling but a different kind of process, where we will add value to the waste. The process is planned such that the recycled spandex has performance parameters in line with requirements of the brands. We are currently considering two sources i.e., post-industrial as well as pre consumer waste (leftover from yarn/fabric manufacturing) for producing this recycled spandex.”
For INVIYA, South Gujarat is a major market now. For ease of distribution, the company has started a warehouse in Surat.
Rahul Singh, Global Head of Business Development, Indorama India Private Ltd (INVIYA), gave a presentation about their products at the Change Masters conference, held in Radisson, Lonavala. “We are further strengthening our specialty/functional fibres offerings by launching recycled and coloured spandex by Q1 CY23. This shall support our value chain/brand partners to innovate faster and bring out more premium and superior product offerings to the end consumers,” he said.
The two-day conference Change Masters, which ended on July 20, brought together future leaders from around the country to discuss, address and plan the future of the Indian intimate wear industry. The extraordinary venue and the structure of the agenda created the perfect environment for making contacts, talking about trends, challenges, and opportunities, and getting business done.
