As India learns to live with the virus, textile companies are keen to develop new products like anti-viral fabrics, masks, and other goods that cater to the growing market for hygiene products worth several hundred crores of rupees.
Leading textile maker Arvind Limited will be launching a fabric it claims could destroy coronaviruses when droplets containing viral load land on it. The fabric was developed in collaboration with a Swiss company, which produces a chemical coating for fabric that lends anti-viral properties, said Kulin Lalbhai, executive director Arvind Limited.
While initially the products would be launched under the Arvind Intellifabrix brand, going forward, the company will extend it to other consumer brands in its portfolio. Arvind markets brands like Arrow, US Polo Association and Flying Machine in India, amongst several others. The company aims to achieve about 10% of the annual menswear sales of Arvind Intellifrabrix of about Rs 1000 crore through this fabric, Lalbhai said. It will also sell masks and garments made from this material. “This is something that is quite the need of the hour.
We don’t know how it shapes up in the long-term, but in the short-term we do believe that there is a natural requirement for this in the market,” Lalbhai told ET over the telephone.
