Sudarshana Raju
Archroma is a global leader in chemicals serving branded and performance textiles, packaging and paper, coatings, adhesives and sealants markets. Headquartered in Reinach, Switzerland, the company operates a highly integrated, customer-focused platform that delivers specialized performance and color solutions in over 100 countries. .Anjani Prasad, Managing Director, Archroma India, in an exclusive chat with Textile Value Chain speaks on the action plans for Indian market. Edited excerpts.
How can you improve the combination of various textile performances and cost optimization in Textile production?
That is a very good question. The textile industry is going through major changes, and among these is the critical need to adopt more ecological product processes. Add this to the need to keep up with the growing demand of brands and consumers for ever more functions, performances at similar costs, and you can imagine the pressure on textile mills and producers. That is where Archroma comes to help, with our innovations and solution systems designed to optimize productivity and/or increase the value of the textile products to help our customers to differentiate on their markets.
What are the innovative ideas for creating high quality materials in market space. What are plans to reach the local market ?
Archroma is reputed for its continuous flow of ground-breaking innovations, such as the EarthColors®, a range of dyes made from non-edible natural waste from the agricultural and herbal industry, or , Smartrepel® Hydro, a nature-friendlier protection that keeps cotton, polyester and polyamide textiles dry, and Denisol® Pure Indigo, an aniline-free* synthetic pre-reduced liquid indigo launched in 2018.
In India, we expect the technical textiles segment to grown alongside the per-capita consumption, and we recently introduced innovations for those textile manufacturers in search for differentiation on the market, such as our Appretan NTR, a new nature-based binder for nonwovens, and Fadex AS New, a new “super UV protector” for automotive & transportation textiles, both introduced in May 2019.
We implemented these innovations in the latest of our systems such as: Light Fast Car, a system based on Fadex® AS New and designed to keep fabric colors deep, vibrant and matched day after day; and Wick Stop, an anti-wicking system, based on Smartrepel® Hydro, to keep your feet drier in the wet, with maximum mesh sneaker durability.
We also recently introduced Odor Control, a system on Sanitized Odoractiv 10, where odor-causing bacteria cannot adhere to the textile surface and bad smells are trapped and neutralized; and permastink cannot build-up in your sportswear.
Now a days all are liking healthy and environmental friendly products. What are ways to insert that into your products?
We do more than that, we have completely redefined the way we do business, in line with our commitment to continuously challenge the status quo in the deep belief that we can make our textile industry sustainable.
We look at the complete picture from fibre to fashion and we challenge how we can help make a difference when we develop a new product, technology or system for our customers. We call that ‘The Archroma Way: Safe, efficient and enhanced, it’s our nature’. Safe, because we help make products that are safe to use and wear, for our customer and the consumer. Efficient, because we help make textiles and clothing in a more efficient way, aiming to optimize productivity and the resource usage, in order to reduce the total production cost. And enhanced, because we help the final product more desirable for brands and the consumer – through functions and aesthetics that create value.
What are the ways to reach your product impact in India as well as globally?
Archroma is a global leader. We have presence and experts in 35 countries, and we operate with 3000 employees and 25 plants worldwide. This footprint is what makes us a reliable partner for the major global brands and textile manufacturers who need world-class and consistent quality and service levels.
In India we have one office and one plant in Roha, and we operate with more than 160 employees on the ground. We are in the process to acquire an optical brightener business for paper and detergents from BASF, which will include a second plant in Ankleshwar. With that and for the time being, our presence and footprint in India will be in line with our current market position and plans.
With that our innovations and systems definitely have a global reach, especially when adopted by major brands like Patagonia or G-Star with water-saving Advanced Denim dyeing technology, our EarthColors dyes based on non-edible biomass raw materials or our aniline-free* synthetic pre-reduced Denisol® Pure Indigo solution. .
How can we improve the Indian textile products value high?
Archroma is supporting textile manufacturers and brands all around the globe, allowing us to constantly increase our know-how and expertise, and feed that back to our customers everywhere, including in India. Thanks to that knowledge and experience, we can help our Indian partners to develop high-end products for export in the US and European markets.
What are the measures can we taken to improve the knowledge of Textile employees?
We as an industry need to intensify training to help in improving the knowledge of textile employees. Archroma is committed to contribute. We offer hands-on training in our laboratories, as well as training on certified application test procedures. We also take the opportunity of customer visits to try and accommodate workshops for their employees on different textile norms, value addition, or sustainability certifications.
Indian industry textile has great value, but the chemicals used for textile spoil our water resources, how can we make environmental friendly?
Working with global leaders like Archroma, who only operate according to the highest standards in terms of product stewardship and manufacturing, is a first step.
Many brands are currently developing and implementing programs to ensure more sustainable and safer sourcing and manufacturing, and we textile manufacturers doing the same. Our expert team is there in India to support textile manufacturers and help them select those innovations and systems, especially from our “sustainable collection”, that especially focus on textile production efficiency and resource optimization.
The textile industry in India will also need to implement best-in-class water management. Many textile manufacturers are currently looking to cluster the water effluent treatment in order to work on scale of operation and cost.
