Can you tell us about Raymond UCO?
Raymond UCO Denim is a joint venture between Raymond of India and UCO NV of Belgium with state-of-the-art denim fabric manufacturing facility in Yavatmal and garmenting unit in Bengaluru. With denim fabric manufacturing capacity of up to 44 million meters and about 4 million pieces per annum of denim garments, it is today one of the most versatile, flexible and vertically integrated denim manufacturing facilities in Asia.
Raymond UCO Denim enjoys global respect as a best in class provider of denim products and solutions. The company is strategically focused on innovative, high quality, value added denim fabrics catering to most of the key international and domestic brands and retailers.
What is the product portfolio offered by Raymond UCO? In Fabrics and Garmenting?
Our product range is a collection of denim fabrics and garments in all its spectacular diversity adhering to varied lifestyles of our customers from fashion to classical heritage. We offer products with sustainable fibers like Modal, Lyocell, Ecovero, Refibra, Linen, Hemp, Wool, Recycled Cotton, Organic Cotton, Recycled Polyester etc in varied shades of blues. We also have in our portfolio, denims with numerous special finishes like brushing, coating, printing just to name a few. We would like to stress here that we have set for ourselves very stringent sustainability targets, aligned with the global best, and have on offer a wide range of sustainable product offerings.
Please share the manufacturing process of Raymond UCO fabrics? And what technologies do you use in your manufacturing units?
The fabric manufacturing facility is a composite mill starting from blowroom to fabric finishing, all under one roof.
Some of the major technologies used in different areas of fabric manufacturing are listed below
- Spinning
- Ring and Open end spinning with latest controls like metal detector, contamination clearer etc
- Special dual core spinning
- Dyeing
- Rope and Slasher dyeing machines equipped with automatic dosing and flow controller essential for shade consistency
- Cadira dyeing – eliminates hazardous hydrosulphite in dyeing with reduction in salt generation up to 95%, COD up to 90% and sulfates up to 95%
- Braviol dyeing – eliminates use of wash-offs water to remove unfixed dye, saving 85-90% of water.
- Advance dyeing – reduces water consumption by 90%, energy requirement by 30% and significant effluent reduction
- Weaving
- Dobby and Jacquard looms for producing tailor-made designs
- Narrow width selvedge looms for producing the vintage denims
- Finishing
- Printing
- Peaching/brushing
- Coating
- Calendaring
Raymond UCO has a vast factory setup in Yavatmal, aka the cotton belt of India. Please share how the factory setup is designed to manufacture the best fabrics and garments?
Spread over 169 acres, the denim fabric manufacturing facility is strategically located in the heart of the cotton belt in India – a city named Yavatmal. The facility is geographically located close to the zero-mile of India and is logistically well connected. The facility is equipped with the latest machinery and value-adding processes that create trend-setting denim.
At the garmenting factory we have reengineered the processes and strictly follow systems and procedures to maintain optimal workforce while keeping costs low and delivering overall product quality and aesthetics of the highest level.
What is the R&D and Quality Control process at your factory for fabrics and garmenting?
Input Control
- Monitoring RSL compliance on a regular basis
- Scrutinizing all the incoming chemicals on the basis of Oekotex STeP RSL/MRSL guidelines
- Sourcing only ZDHC gateway registered chemicals, and emphasizing on the Level 3 chemicals only
- Seeking self-declarations for RSL/MRSL compliance from the chemical vendors and conforming with random testing from the authorised third party
Monitoring output (Fabric)
- Having Oekotex STD 100 certificate in Class – 1 category
- Random testing through the authorized third party as per buyers’ protocol
At the garmenting facility, we follow two simple rules to ensure that we offer the best Quality to all the top brands that we cater to:
- Do not pass the defect to the next process.
- Take the defect back to the source in the process to create awareness.
As you know, denim is one of the most climate polluting segments in the textile industry. How does Raymond UCO tackle this problem?
Listed below are few eco-friendly approaches
- Biological state-of-the-art effluent treatment plant with Zero liquid and Zero sludge discharge
- 97% of water is recycled and reused saving annually 720 million liters of water
- We use less than 10 liters of Blue Water for production of 1 meter of fabric
- We were pioneers in installing Caustic recovery plant which prevents discharge of hazardous chemical to effluent
All these efforts are verified and recognized by some leading global brands and retailers with highest ratings
Continuing the sustainability question, apart from the manufacturing process what other activities are done by Raymond UCO to reduce its carbon footprint?
- We have achieved 58% GreenHouse Gas (GHG) reduction from the baseline year of 2016.
- 49% reduction in gate-to-gate energy consumption from the baseline year of 2017.
- Converted 124 lacs of electricity unit into greener energy out of total consumption of 709 lacs unit with Renewable energy certificate.
- We have a third party verified (BV) Higg Index score of 93.6% which is one of the best in the textile industry.
- We have a lush green campus having around 75,000 live trees which absorb about 2000 MT of CO2 in a year
- We have reduced 12-13% fossil fuel by replacing it with biomass fuel.
How are the market conditions currently for the denim industry in India and Internationally?
Pandemic followed by the Russia-Ukraine war has led to uncertainties globally. And the inflationary pressure building up in the major part of the globe has created pressures on consumption because of which exports are seeing pressure on demand side. But despite the global slowdown, the domestic market is growing at its own pace which is much higher than that of global.
With the new technologies and sustainable materials coming in, does Raymond UCO have any plans for using other materials apart from cotton? Perhaps recycled yarns also?
We are in a big way using sustainable fibers which we have listed below
- BCI Cotton > 50%
- Organic Cotton/Fairtrade Cotton
- PCW/PIW Cotton
- Other Natural fibers – Hemp, Linen, Kapok etc
- Man Made sustainable fibers – Lyocell, Ecovero, Refibra, Recycled Polyester
Last but not least, what is Raymond UCO doing differently that sets it apart from its counterparts?
Raymond, India and UCO, Belgium have more than 300 years of combined experience in textiles with a strong reputation in the market. Our strong brand image is an outcome of consistent quality, transparency and top-class service all of which go a long way in building a strong relationship with the customers.
