Austrian fibre firm to set up shop in Mumbai

To cash in on the apparel boom in India and the demand for speciality fibres, Austria-based cellulosic fibre major, Lenzing Fibers, is on the look out for more partners in the country.

The company is also planning to set up a sales and marketing office in Mumbai.

Company officials said that the land for setting up the sales and marketing office had been identified and the office would become functional by the end of the current fiscal.

However, they declined to disclose details about the probable investment in this regard.

The facility would initially have at least a dozen of technicians who will provide the technical expertise to their Indian customers, like the ratio of blend with cotton, slight alterations to be done in the machinery for spinning this speciality yarn and the ways and means of marketing them.

This apart, the company is eyeing the textile belt of Tamil Nadu - Coimbatore, Karur and Erode "� for producing and marketing its modal, viscose and tencel fibres. These are natural cellulose fibres made out of beachwood that is available only in tropical forests.

The company is interacting with spinners, weavers and garmenters in the region and is keen to get into the woven shirting segment for selling its premium fibre 'tencel,' which, when blended with cotton, produces high-end shirting material.

The European fibre group will target the premium woven fabric segment (supplies for dress material, home textiles and silk).

Thomas Gaidoschik, director, Lenzing Fibers, told Business Standard: "India's knitwear sector is the major consumer of Lenzing's range of fibres. We are now focusing on developing a market for these fibres in the weaving sector, especially for the growing home textiles and dress material applications."

The company, which is promoting its new generation viscose fibre brand 'Tencel' in the Indian market, has been building a strong consumer base in India for its viscose and modal fibre for more than five years.

It supplies fabric to its Indian customers who spun the modal and viscose yarn and sell them in domestic and overseas markets. The Indian clientele of Lenzing includes big names such as Rajasthan Textile Mills of the Bhilwara group, Rajasthan Spinning and Weaving Mills, Vardhaman Spinning Mills and the city-based Lakshmi Mills Company (LMC).

"At present, we are working with Lakshmi Mills Company, with whom we have been associated for more than two years. We get a number of enquiries from the mills in this region," he added.

The price of the shirting fabric made of these products would be close to the price of cotton fabric, he said. Lenzing has tied up with Bhabuji Institute of Technology in Davangere, Karnataka, to promote silk and the 'Tencel' fibre.

Lenzing is looking at Indian textile exporters as promising consumers of its branded fibres. The company is targeting India as a new growth area for its branded 'Tencel' fibre, which is claimed to be skin-friendly and considered as a replacement for the polynosic fibre used in the region.

Of its total production capacity of 4.5 lakh tonnes a year, Lenzing's exports to India in the last fiscal year stood at approximately 3,000 tonnes a year.

This is likely to go up to more than 7,000 tones during this fiscal year. India contributes around 5-7 per cent of the company's total revenue of $ 1 billion.