After nearly two years of pause the business finally seems to be back on track. The sunny morning of 10th March saw an interesting start for Picanol India as it inaugurated its new office as an expansion to its existing operations in New Delhi.
The weaving czar has successfully crafted its Indian story as within 30 years the company has sold almost 30,000 weaving machines in India. Giving tough competition to its rivals the company is gathering strength by expanding its network, team, clients and installations. The plush new office at DLF Moti Nagar was inaugurated by Belgian Ambassador H.E. François Delhaye in the presence of Karel Datienne, Sales Team Manager who had specially arrived from Belgium to be part of the event, P. Kasiviswanathan, CEO, Picanol India, the man who is the backbone for Picanol in India along with Picanol’s clients who came from various parts of India.
The event that started off with a cheerful band welcoming the Ambassador was followed by a ribbon cutting ceremony and complete tour of the office. “This office is extension of our existing space and is an effort to offer enhanced after sales support to our customers via latest means of communication IoT(internet of Things), service support so that they does not face any hassle in running the machine and almost every error can be rectified from here only,” explained Kasiviswanathan. He also mentioned that there is an increasing demand for Picanol’s machinery in India and textile players are getting inclined towards Picanol’s machines, its quality, speed and innovation.
“Despite the slowdown in the market we continued adding new customers in our profile and got repeat orders from our existing clients; this itself is a big achievement for the Team of Picanol India.
After taking a tour of the office, a formal presentation on the company’s growth and achievement was shared in the presence of Johan Verstraete, Vice President Weaving Solutions – Marketing, Sales & Service at Picanol, who joined the ceremony virtually. “India has always been an important market for Picanol that has grown and developed over the years.
“Picanol as a group will continue to serve its customers with the latest technology that matches the expectations in terms of speed, service and innovation.” Johan commented that the market dynamics are changing as buyers sourcing strategy has changed as they want to divert sourcing away from China to other countries like India and Pakistan so there is definitely a good prospect for growth in the coming times.
“Picanol as a group is quite diverse in areas of expertise and it is good to be part of this ceremony and we are proud to be part of this occasion. I did not know that Picanol was such a diverse group and I don’t think that there are many competitors who can offer the same kind of technology and expertise,” said Belgian Ambassador H.E. François Delhaye while sharing his views on Picanol.
“Our slogan is let’s grow together. Belgium and China are where Picanol manufactures its machinery, however, machines coming to India are 99% from Belgium as players always look for new and innovative technology here, they do not look at price but performance unlike Chinese players. The latest machines are built on industry 4.0, the speed, performance, usage, errors all can be analysed via mobile. Smart performance and sustainability is the USP of our product,” asserted Kasi.
One of the customers who visited the inauguration ceremony and came specially from Ahemdabad Piyush Mittal from Vinod Denims, a company that has into textile manufacturing since 1980 and is producing 40 lakh metres a month shared, “We have decided to install Picanol machines though we have been using the Japanese technology for many years and this has been possible after getting good reviews from customers’, the knowledge and expertise the Picanol India team has and the fact that they offer good customer support gives us the confidence to invest in the technologies offered by them.”
“Starting with a team of 27 people we have 42 people onboard today and we have 30,000 machines running in India. We have further increased our office space by 30% in 15 years of operations. This office will serve as a sales and customer service all under one roof,” said a proud Kasi.
Picanol develops, produces and markets high-tech weaving machines, based on air (airjet) or rapier technology.
It supplies weaving machines to weaving mills worldwide, and also offer such services as installation, commissioning and trouble shooting, aftermarket sales (spare parts, accessories) and training.
Today, about 2,600 weaving mills around the world use Picanol machinery, totaling more than 175,000 weaving machines.
Denims, technical textiles, terry towels, parachutes, home textiles, apparels are some of the areas of application.
