Kunal Organics may help textiles firms cut costs

In what could help textile companies cut down costs by nearly 55 per cent, an Ahmedabad-based company has come up with an innovation, which promises to benefit the industry.

Kunal Organics Pvt Ltd (KOPL) on Wednesday claimed that its innovation SizeCare, a sizing solution for textile industry, could help in cutting down the operation cost by 55 per cent.

Sizing -- the dipping-in-a-hot-chemical-bath stage -- adds a strengthening and smooth coating to the thread. While typically a sizing solution recipe involves starch, polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), acrylic softener, tallow among other things, Size Care claims to do be a one-shot solution doing away with all other ingredients.

"Currently sizing technologies are a bottleneck in a typical fabric manufacturer's assembly line. But this product is an eco-friendly textile sizing solution, which does away with other ingredients, hence saving direct operation costs by 54-55 per cent. While a typical sizing add-on solution forms 10-16 per cent of the yarn, Size Care add-on will only be one per cent," said Atul Lekhadia, managing director of the company.

With a clientele that includes textile majors like Arvind Mills, Aarvee Denim and Raymonds, KOPL is hoping to sell 50 per cent of the 300 tonnes per month capacity in the first year of operation to begin in mid-2008.

The company has invested around Rs 15 crore in R&D and manufacturing of this product and is expecting to double its turnover of Rs 100 crore by next year by riding on its sales.

The company will soon begin talks with some Japanese auto-makers who are setting up their bases in the country to market its auto-textile chemical products like flame retardents, UV fading improvers and moisture properties.