Textile engineering major, A.T.E., has entered into the garment sector, thus filling-up the only major gap in A.T.E.’s offerings across the textile value chain. While A.T.E. has thus far been the only player with complete solutions from spinning to finished fabrics, its foray into the garment segment makes it a single window solution provider from ‘spinning to garment’ - a unique distinction that sets A.T.E. apart.
For A.T.E., entry into garment segment was a strategic decision, considering the tremendous scope the garment sector offers for textile industry in terms of value addition and growth. Further, many of the textile majors, who are A.T.E.’s long standing customers, may consider forward integration by entering into garment manufacturing. In fact, according to A.T.E., their entry into the garment sector has been suggested by many of their existing loyal textile customers.
Garment manufacturing being labour intensive, the availability of labour and the spiraling labour costs are the twin challenges faced by this segment. A.T.E. is convinced that automation is the way forward for this sector and therefore aims to differentiate itself with technologies that can reduce the dependence on labour and ensure optimum productivity and quality.
A.T.E. has already succeeded in tying up with a number of reputed manufacturers to provide a range of automation solutions used for garment manufacturing, and is aiming to be an end to end solution provider in garment machinery in a short time. The principals currently represented by A.T.E. include:
- Morgan Tecnica S.p.a, Italy – for CAD, spreaders and automatic cutters in cutting room.
- SUNSTAR Machinery Co.Limited, Korea – for basic & automatic sewing machines
- LOIVA, Korea – for specialized sewing machines and attachments for high end production like autojig machines, button wrapping machines, button feeder attachments & digital pullers
- Dr Aykan Textiles, Turkey – for industrial washing machines & dry process like laser marking machine, ozone generators, stapling machines & washing accessories.
- MAG Solvics Private Limited, India – for testing equipment like button/snap pull strength measurement, GSM measurement, swatch cutting, electronic weighing balance, color fastness assessment, etc.
- A.T.E. Envirotech Private Limited, India – for water and waste water management.
- HMX Systems Private Limited, India – for green cooling systems offering comfort both with better economy as well as with lower carbon intensity
A.T.E. is also building up a strong sales and service team across India for this new division, which is headed by Mr K B Prasad, a professional with 18 years of experience. Considering the unique characteristics of garment industry, A.T.E. shall also keep a sufficient stock of machines to cater to the immediate needs of our customers who can get the products without any delay and hassles.
Explaining the raison d’etre for A.T.E. setting its foothold in the garment sector, Mr. G V Aras, Director, Textile Engineering Group, A.T.E. Enterprises, said that “A.T.E. has always aligned its strategy to its customer expectations. Many major customers of us have been prodding us to enter this segment. So we have made this decision and we will go ahead in full steam, and our aim is to position A.T.E. as a preferred supplier in this segment as well, like in other textile sectors where we hold a pre-eminent position”.