Press | 01 Nov 2018

The 15th edition of Garknit-X was held in Kolkata from November 3 to 5, 2017. The largest ever show in East India brought cutting edge technology from Japan, Taiwan, China, Korea, Europe and the US. The three-day fair saw a massive display of latest machinery from cutting to finishing for readymade garments.

About 90 brands both international and domestic participated in the fair, which is held once in a year in this region. The expo was attended by production head and industry decision makers from garment and knitting industry. It featured live demonstrations to help visitors to know about the latest developments and updates in technology from this sector.

Garknit – X has been playing a key role in spreading the technological revolution in Eastern region of India. This time again, it provided a perfect platform to the participants, to gain foothold in the fast growing market, as Kolkata is witnessing improvements in manufacturing capacities along with huge investments in new technology. Kolkata textile industry plays a very important role in the economy of the capital city of the State of West Bengal.

Recently, the government and industry leaders of the West Bengal have zeroed in on five sub-sectors of the textile value chain. The State is among the top producers in these segments, which will receive a boost in the form of government help. The five sub-sectors are hosiery and innerwear, linen, workwear, textiles machinery, and technical textiles.
Of the five segments, textiles machinery manufacturing could also lead to substantial import substitution and save precious foreign exchange for the country. India imports almost all the textiles machinery it needs and so the govt. is looking at developing this industry in the State. West Bengal has some advantage in the labour-intensive textile sector due to availability of a large number of skilled personnel.

Today, leading exporters and domestic innerwear brands like Rupa, Lux, TT, VIP, Dollar, Amul, Kothari, Dora, Young India, Nova etc. and many kidswear brands like Zero, A First, First Baby, Top Baby, Mickey, Vico, Payal, Point, Zoo originate from this region only. The metropolitan city of Kolkata houses a number of varied textile manufacturing and distributing companies. The textile industry here contributes to the industrial output, export and employment sectors of the city. Apart from hosiery, handloom, cotton, Jute and silk are other major industries flourishing in Kolkata. Since Kolkata is a gateway of this region as well as countries like Bangladesh and Nepal, Garknit-X is very popular to buyers who are keen to adopt modern technology to the respective units to boost production capacity. During the show many leading players from the industry presented their latest innovations to the customers.

This included sewing, cutting, finishing, embroidery, fusing, laundry, printing and knitting machines for fabric, trimming and embellishment, dyes and chemicals, software, CAD/CAM, print and packing, laboratory, support services and trading publications etc.

Some of the prominent companies and brands from the industry who participated in the show were Juki, Brother, Pegasus, Jack, Zoje,Yamato, Melco embroidery, Baba Embroidery, Zenix, Sudarshan Embroidery, Jingcheng, Fineses, Balaji, Trieka, DynaImpex, Morgan, Studio Next, Optitex, Grafica, Mimaki, Colorjet, DCC, Anaadih, IIGM, and many more. One of the major attractions at the show were fashion shows organised on daily basis by Sudarshan Embroidery Solution, selling Chinese multi-head embroidery machines, to present latest developments and different kinds of embroidery applications on sarees, lehenga and dress material.

While speaking on the sideline of the show, BP Mishra, Chief Executive, Vardaan Event Pvt. Ltd, organiser of the show said, “Garknit-X Kolkata, which was started in 2004, hosted its 15th edition in the city this time. The show provided an opportunity to the leading technology providers from all over to showcase their latest offerings together under one roof, and giving a boost to the industry’s growth in this region. The show this year crossed all the previous standards in terms of exhibitors and visitors profiles. Prior to the show everyone was apprehensive about the response as the industry is still under the impact of GST, but to our surprise it got very good response from the visitors. The event this year witnessed a huge footfall with an increase of 40 per cent, and was 30 per cent bigger in terms of size (Area), when compared to 2016. The major highlights this year were latest high speed embroidery, automatic sewing, digital T-shirt, sublimation and direct digital textile printing machines apart from flat knitting, circular knitting, CAD CAM and many others.”

“The show generated a lot of enquiries for the new products on display and in fact very good no. of on-the-spot orders was placed. In total, the show hosted around 9,375 trade visitors, from in-and-around Kolkata, Ludhiana, Surat, Jamshedpur, Gohati, Ranchi, Bhilai, Patna, Orissa and even Bangladesh and Nepal. The visitors’ response and feedback itself shows the recent growth of textile industry here. Earlier Kolkata was known as second hand machines market in sewing industry.

But now, every company here buys only new machines. The market has huge potential for printing and embroidery machinery manufacturers due to presence of kidswear and sarees segment. In all, the presence of important apparel and knitting professionals from various segments and associations has proved Garknit-X to be a good show,” said Mishra.
Overall, the visitors’ turnout and positive feedback itself indicates the vibrancy of the Kolkata apparel and textile market. Besides, the infrastructure of the show also got quite improved this edition. The next edition of Garknit-X will be held in Tirupur from April 6-8, 2018.