The 16th edition of Garfab-TX Surat, an international trade show on textile, apparel & embroidery technology along with fabrics & accessories was held at the Surat International Exhibition & Convention Center (SIECC) from April 5-7, 2019. The show was inaugurated by Himmat Bhatia, President of Saurasthra Textile Traders Association along with Chief Guest Dhirubhai, MD & Chairman, Fairdeal Group in the presence of leading players from the Surat textile industry.
Garfab-TX provided an ideal platform to all the companies wanting to reach out to huge market in Surat and nearby areas. Compared to previous editions, the show this year was better both in terms of no. of exhibitors and visitors. This edition around 83 exhibitors/brands from Europe, Japan, Singapore, China, Taiwan, Korea and India participated in the same. According to the organisers, this was the best ever Garfab in Surat with highest numbers of visitors till day.
The exhibitors who took part in the expo were from the companies dealing in embroidery machines, electronic jacquard rapier looms, water jet looms, digital textile printing machine, sewing machines and many more garment and value addition machines. The three-day show, organised by the Vardaan Events Pvt. Ltd. hosted around 24,750 visitors from Surat, Ahmedabad, Varanasi, Erode, Ludhiana, Ichalkaranji, Sholapur, Bhiwandi, and many others nearby regions. This edition show’s reach was much better across India as more than 3000 customers were from outside Surat.
The major highlights of the show were latest technologies displayed by leading companies from India and overseas. This edition Unix Stitch Machines had the biggest presence with 700 sq mtr stall. Besides, major brands like Sinsim Liberty, ITEMA, Blue jade, Signature, KTI, Dolphin, Om Staya, Alliance Embroidery, Golden Falcon, IML, KTL, Insight, Promaker, Colourtex Industries, Sarjan International, Superlab (India), AR Corporation, Optimum Digital, Shagun Enterprise, Utkarsh Enterprise, Bakubhai Ambalal, Brother International, Hansfab, Bapu Traders, Shahlon Group, Insight Print Communications, Digital Vision (Total Printing Solution), Colorjet, Epson India, Embrojia, Shagun Enterprise, Golden Falcon India, DCC Print Vision LLP, Juki India, Pickwell Textile Machinery, Print N Fusion, SP Trading Co and many others presented their wide range of latest products.
Some major product highlights included: First time in Surat live demo of European high speed rapier with Chinese jacquard; Fastest Jacquard Machine 400 RPM in display; 188 head machine in display with boring; First time in Surat 4 sequence one needle embroidery machine; Latest & new technology of Jacquard, Rapier, Embroidery, Digital printing, sewing machine; High speed airjet with jacquard; Largest display of high speed rapier with electronic jacquard; Multi needle dori embroidery machine; Single needle bead sequin embroidery machine; Cheapest jacquard; Largest display of high speed water jet; High speed dobby; Largest participation by digital printers & cheapest cotton digital printing machine; Widest range of sewing machines from Taiwan Germany and China; Needles loom and crochet machines; Accessories, spares parts, thread etc…
While speaking after the show BP Mishra, CEO, Vardaan Events Pvt. Ltd said, “Improved market scenario and latest technologies on display played an important role in attracting good visitors’ footfall at the show. For last one and half years, Surat textile industry was not doing well and since January only market has started reviving. The market for textile and weaving is in uptrend now. So, it’s going to be a good year for the industry here. Prior to the show, some of the exhibitors were apprehensive about customers’ footfall, but when they came here it was far better than their expectations. All the exhibitors reported large number of enquiries and many on the spot order were also placed. So, again Garfab-TX proved itself as the best platform in this region.”
Surat, an emerging city in the State of Gujarat, is known as the textile city of Gujarat. And, the epithet is perfectly suited to the city. The textile industry is one of the oldest and the most widespread industries in Surat. The industry of Surat is mainly engaged in the activity of polyester yarn production, weaving, processing, printing as well as embroidery and other value addition on sarees and dress materials. It is well-known for its production and trading of synthetic textile products, dressing up entire regions in India and exports printed polyester fabrics to all over the world.
The Surat textile industry has grown considerably over the times. According to a recent data, textile production of Surat has been growing continuously for the last 10 years; one of the main reasons behind the growth is the ability to adapt to changes and the latest trend. It is also known necessary to update the technology used at the industry as well as the infrastructure. The current supply and demand factors provide very conducive and favourable business and market environment for the technological investment. In such scenario, there is a big need to the industry to upgrade itself with the latest technological developments taking place worldwide. That is why for providing these technologies under one roof Garfab-TX was organised recently in Surat.
Some glimpse of the show…
Some of the exhibitors’ Comments…
We are displaying digital printing machine for textile processes for wider width printing. You can use reactive, pigment, disperse and direct sublimation process. It can print carpet, fabric and paper transfer too. It is 75 per cent made in Turkey and 25 per cent in Japan for heads. It comes with open ink system but we prefer customers to use inks we supply as we give them warranty for print head too, which the biggest issue for digital printing.
This is after three years, we are participating in any exhibition in India. Response is really good. India is a very potential market for textile so we are very happy to be here. We already have four machines running in India right now. We are in Surat because it is textile city of India and hopefully we will have good results. Overall, feedback at Garfab is really impressive.
This edition we are committed to overcome the challenges of textile industry with our latest innovative technologies at the largest 700 sq mtr stall at the show. Here we have presented wide range of technologies which include: 1400 RPM high speed embroidery machine, 3 Dimensional Embroidering, Beads embroidery, Beads + Beads combined, Chain Coiling & Chain Taping machine, Sequin Embroidery, Multi-Cording Embroidery machines by Zhuji Maya; 4-Head Digital and 3- Head Digital Sublimation Printers by Fedar; Digital inks by INKTEK; Pearl with Sequin Embroidery machine, Shape Pearl, Rhinestone machine, Roll to roll machine, Single Head Stone, Laser machine by FZY; Rapier loom, Jacquard, Heat Transfer machine by UNIX. Here we received very good response as large number of people visited our booth not only from Surat but other parts of the country as well. We received many enquiries and on the spot orders here for all our technologies on display here. The market in Surat is doing well and is expected to better in future.
Basically, we have participated for the first time in Garfab and have come up with digital textile inks for the market. We had very good response and met many new customers here. We feel that after participating in Garfab our business will definitely grow. We are largest dyestuff manufacturing company in India for last so many years, and digital textile inks are most purified version of dyes.
So, we have entered this segment as its demand is growing. We are confident of doing well in inks segment also as we always focus on offering the best quality. When compared to imported inks, our inks will cost less as these are made in India, so there’s no additional import duty. Besides, we have backward integration unit for preparing raw material, so will have that advantage also which will ultimately bring down the ink cost.
Yarn preparatory is very important for weaving. Though yarn preparatory is available in India, but imported machines still outperform in terms of efficiency and power saving. We have now brought China’s biggest company Sanfang for this technology in India. Weaving industry is Surat is doing really good. Weavers which earlier used to buy low priced waterjet are facing the issues of maintenance just after three years of usage. Due to which now, they prefer to buy only good quality machines.
Yiinchuen is world famous Taiwan company with more than 30 years of history. We have many satisfactory industry leaders as our clients. Even other vendors admire our quality and this motivates us to keep improving. We have a fully equipped service centre and adequate inventory to support our clients. We are witnessing increased demand year on year basis. As far as Garfab is concerned, the exhibition has become bigger and people are now coming in large numbers to see new innovations on display.
Here we are displaying two products: One is our own brand COLORIX with high-speed dye sublimation printer SUBPRO I, which has been receiving a positive response from the market and also been accepted by digital production houses. Then we have JP2 printer from MS printing solutions Italy to focus on meeting the demand of short and mid volume sublimation printing market. With MS we are not present there at entry level segment so Colorix fills that gap. We are launching direct fabric printing with slow speed machine.
At the moment we are buying it from China, there’s an OEM company which is making it for us and at later stage we have planning to assemble the machine out here in India. At Garfab response is good; we found a lot of quality players also. The market is doing good, we sold around 19 ‘JP-7’ machines last year.
During the Garfab’19 we displayed the highest production sublimation machine available in the market, with a production of 130 mtr per hr. with a dpi of 300 by 600. Normal machines usually have a 240 dpi. By the end of this month we are planning a private show, where we are displaying a 600 by 600 dpi machine with 450 mtr per hr. production. Generally people today in sublimation are doing 700- 800 mtr per day in sublimation printing. All this is under the brand name ATEXCO. We also have other new machines but those can’t be displayed as they are too big.
People are more inclined towards digital right now. Still cost wise there are challenges, people are trying to work and do certain changes to cut down the cost. It’s not only limited to giving the high speed machines but supporting infrastructure and other things also. In the future we may plan to open a demo center where all our latest machines will be on display and customers could come, see get their sampling done.
We have received fantastic response at Garfab. I participated in an exhibition in August last year and can see the difference as embroidery customers which were not visiting us earlier, all of them have been here with good no. of enquiries. Visitors’ footfall and quality is very good. We are displaying high speed Machine Super Bullet which is of 1400 rpm, and can easily run at 1200 rpm regular. Another machine of ours is having four sequins on one side and cording on another. It’s a new thing, and can be operated very easily.
We also have machines with 8 sequins i.e. four sequins on both sides. We also introduced sublimation machines in February last year and have sold around 70 machines till now which has received very good feedback from customers. Besides, we have entered inks segment also.
We have three products; we’ve been doing embroidery since 2005, plus we have launched sublimation digital printing machine with Kyocera head, and have nonwoven bag making machine. We have launched it in Surat and have been working on it for last one year. In our digital machine, due to Kyocera head production is fast and ink consumption is almost half. This machine is of `19.5 lakhs which is reasonable when compared to others available in the market.
We have launched this machine in collaboration with Bluejade. We are representing Bluejade in Surat market. Garfab is a fantastic show; we received extremely encouraging response, in fact the machine we launched here has already been sold. The market scenario is good, and we met customers more than expected.
The show is best till day both in terms of visitors’ footfall and quality. This time we are displaying SMIT jacquard rapier machine from SANTEX RIMAR GROUP which is made in Italy. Till day in Surat nobody has displayed such European machine in any exhibition. In embroidery, we have kept model 27250 machine open so that customers could see what all components and parts are used. Besides, our machine dual sequin with cording is in running demo here.
Response is really good, a lot of crowd and we get to meet new people also. Besides, our Italian machine has also received encouraging response and we even are expecting more than 50 bookings by next week. Earlier people used to think that European machines cost around crore rupees capital investment, but this machine requires only `15 lakh more with almost 40 years of runability. We have also started making electronic jacquard and rapier looms with ALT Brand. The technology is 80 per cent made in India and quality wise is better than Chinese in low speed.
We are dealing in value addition. We deal in rapier looms and jacquard, earlier we used to offer chain driven jacquard but now we offer camp driven. The main highlight here is our newly invented fastest runaway rapier loom at 400 rpm at 360 cm. In embroidery, we have displayed 4 sequin with beads combination in 12 colors needle machine, which is getting very good response. Today, trend is more towards sequins, value addition which will be in demand for next two years. We will be offering more new developments in sequins soon.
Besides, rapier looms with electronic jacquard will have a bright future. I never have doubt when it is Garfab because it is a wonderful brand since last sixteen, seventeen years. This year the main highlight is that exhibitors are really encouraging and displaying fantastic new technologies. We can see the revival boom in the market here. It’s a very good show, where we always want to participate in. Every edition we get better services than previous editions.
New from us is a four sequin device dual on two heads separately, one with bead and second without beads. Another machine is dual sequin with cording with 1400 rpm. Our latest addition Promaker’s response is really good here. Even without demonstrating the machine we have done good number of bookings. People are made aware that this technology is from Yuemei only. The machines are already operating in this market and I am getting very good response from the customers.
Nowadays, sequins and cording are in good demand. In terms of business, 2019-20 looks very bright in Surat as we already have 100 installation, and 150 machines booking is in hand. We are trying to establish it, once done we will bring more new technologies.
Embroidery segment has witnessed a lot of technological developments in terms of sound, speed, and productivity of machines. Now, double cam is there in which machine runs smoothly at 1200 rpm. We’ve been selling double cam machines for last 2.5 years. Our customers are doing really good, giving us repeat orders, and production efficiently is at its best. Apart from embroidery we have digital and are displaying sublimation paper transfer machine.
The machine is producing more than 1200 mtr per day. We supply all the solutions of cotton digital print. We have introduced a very reasonable economical direct printing machine. We are running it on cotton. A lot of our customers who are running sublimation machines have orders for cotton fabric reactive printing. But spending a crore rupee on machine is not possible for everyone. So, we have introduced a machine which comes with Espon DX500 head and is worth Rs. 26 lakh only.
We are displaying positioning or location printing technology, which is offered by our company only. Its main advantage is AI i.e. artificial intelligence which captures images from software and then prints it. I have been working on this project for last 2 years and till day have installed 20 machines in Surat. Response is good and future also looks very promising.
Visitors are coming and witnessing this technology as this is very new to India, and is from China. This is the best exhibition in the region, footfall is high and mostly embroidery and jacquard people are coming. Value addition is the key and digital will always be there in good demand.
We are displaying actual real high speed embroidery machines. Our main purpose is that it should give actual speed of 1000 RPM with Indian material which are used in machines and should run properly without problem. The target is real, actual, specific, and our customers also have satisfaction over that. The raw materials quality in India are not of foreign standards, so 1200-1300 rpm will not be of much use. The new machine we have displayed is laser cutting with camera technology.
We also have rhinestone machine which allows you to work exceedingly and maximum no. of stone getting placed with less manpower. We have received very good response here for our embroidery machine and rhinestone machine, so we are very optimistic about next business. Earlier speed was in trend but now how much value you can add to the fabric is in demand.
Our company is into manufacturing digital printing machines for last 12 years in India. Especially in textiles we offer sublimation and direct belt type machine. We are the only one in Surat making belt type machine in which you can use any ink from reactive, disperse, acid. As we are local manufacturer so service will be easily available to customer in case of any technical fault. Usually imported machines result in reducing customers’ production due to lack of timely delivery.
When compared to Chinese machines, our machines cost 20-27 per cent less. We have developed our new machine with Epson 4720 Head and many new additional features which are not there in imported machines. This is my second time participation in Garfab and the response is really good. Surat market is doing well and is expecting to do better in future for digital textile printing.
This year at Garfab we have launched wider width machine, which nobody is having in India right now i.e. 3.2 mtr. Recently industry has witnessed big change for home textiles. This machine has been assembled in India and comes with Konica Minolta head. Only the heads and print engines have been imported to India, other things have been developed here only.
Response here at Grafab is really good as we are displaying a machine which nobody else is having. Overall we are happy with the show’s organisation. Digital is in trend as it is fast, allows repeat short orders, there’s no limitation to creations, and in future it will eat into rotary printing’s market. As European machines cost crore our machine costs around Rs. 35 lakh as it is made in India.
We are displaying four sequin 3355 machine for the first time. We’ve been selling this machine for last one year and getting very good response. Our machine is running on automatic robotics mode, attracting huge footfall. The visitors coming to the show are not very enthusiastic. Yes, footfall is there but will have to see how enquiries materialise in future. The technologies doing unique types of value additions in embroidery industry will prosper in future.
Besides, we are displaying few old technologies here because we are one of the earliest providers of technologies, many technologies which are launched by other people here, are similar to what we have already had in 2013-14. Now, the concept becomes how your machine will be after five years. Here people are running there new machines with 1000 rpm but we are running our five year old machine with 1000 rpm, which shows the difference.
We have displayed 16-head Vastrajet over here. This is our new product which we launched in GTTES. Surat being the most important market, we thought of bringing this product over here. Overall response is been good, both our existing and prospective customers have shown interest in this product. We have shown here reactive, but the machine is capable of running on all three disperse, pigment and reactive inks.
Though huge turnout of visitors is there but particularly for digital it is a little less than my expectations. Surat customers are already well aware of the technology so there is not much need to participate in such exhibitions. But we will continue to participate in such exhibitions, to show our presence. We just can’t ignore this market of Surat basically.
We have two types of machines high speed rapier and low speed rapier. Low speed is manufactured by us here in India but high speed is imported. The machine is from China, and our local manufacturing facility is in Sachin. With our Chinese machine you can create whatever you think, there is no limitation in terms of creativity.
When it comes to manufacturing such high speed technologies in India, I think it will take atleast 15 more years to develop these technologies as we don’t have such expertise. We have been participating in this show for last 10 years and it is really a good show, where we have received good response. Coming 10 years are going to be game changing and will make Surat mark itself at world level.
This edition we have displayed ready bobbin which is used in embroidery machine. Due to which you can use machine directly without bobbin. This technology is the future of embroidery machines as user will require these in embroidery machines. This doesn’t cost much and results in increasing productivity, finishing and saves time. Besides, we have complete embroidery spare parts and Groz Beckert sewing needles.
We have become dealers of Champion device and are also direct dealer from Italy for Siliconi, Koban from Japan and BZBS from China. Response here at Garfab is always good. Surat is our main area and 70 per cent customers know us. They know our services are satisfactory. In embroidery segment, ups and downs are always happening but those adopting latest technologies will perform well in future.
Garfab show has provided us an opportunity to meet all our customers together under one roof. Here we are displaying paper printing a.k.a sublimation printer from Epson Japan. There latest printer has been kept for demo here. It’s USP is print head technology i.e. TFP, which Epson specifically makes for its own printers and doesn’t supply. The technology is of 64th inch width but ink consumption is really less when compared to other printers in the market.
Besides, Espon has added its own RIP software in it. Nowadays, sublimation printing is in boom in Surat. In last six months we have sold around 60 Espon printers. Apart from it, we also offer DGI from Korea and Epson’s Monnalisa. We have already sold two Monnalisa machines in Surat and Kolkata. Also, DGI is getting very good response in North India as digital textile printing has a very bright future ahead.
This is for the first time we are participating in this exhibition. We represent Tang Jingwei machines from China, which is a leading embroidery machine manufacturer in the world market. The response at Garfab-TX 2019 is extremely good as we met a lot of customers who were interested in our technologies. We received several enquiries and orders here.
Here for the first time we have displayed our machine model GGHS++ with 1500 RPM in flat embroidery and 1400 RPM with cording. Another machine on display is GGS++ model with 1200 RPM in flat embroidery and 1100 RPM with cording. The GGS++ model has been receiving huge response from the customers for last six months. We even converted a lot of enquiries into bookings through Garfab exhibition.
We are a leading Indian digital inkjet machine and ink manufacturer. We are having state-of-the-art technology and equipment for the production of high quality of sublimation, reactive, and disperse inks for all kind of heads likes of Epson, Kyocera, Konica Minolta, and Spectra. Industrial printers are new trend because it gives you consistency in printing along with high production and saves cost. So we have come up with this 2 head Kyocera printer in our GO-2 series to meet the future demand. The market has started improving and hopefully by year-end business will open. We have recently launched Bluejet Freedom Six Color Printer, which is getting very good response from the market. As far as trend is concerned, in coming years pigment will also play a very important role. When compared to other industries, digital is growing better but still it has not received the due growth which it should have due to market doesn’t have cash flow. As far as response at Garfab is concerned, it is a very good show organised in the region. It provides us an opportunity to meet our existing and prospective customers together at one platform. Overall response and footfall at the show is satisfactory.
Technology is almost similar what we had earlier. In embroidery segment nothing new is coming up but only speed wise and technology wise it is improving. Trend wise 1200-1500 rpm machine will be in demand. We participate in Garfab regularly, people are visiting the exhibition but until unless we get the results we can’t say anything.
Garfab is well known exhibition, which is reason industry’s response to the show becomes better every year. The market is doing well, but it is not easy to predict its future as it keeps on fluctuating after every few days. If Surat’s business goes down for sometimes, hopes still remain high here.
We have launched Ready bobbin here in the market. Customers are becoming more aware of these bobbins as these increase their productivity and also there is no need to fill the bobbin again and again which saves their time. So, due to this one worker can handle two machines. From normal shuttle we have entered jumbo shuttle 1.6, which increases size of bobbin, so you can run a bobbin upto 12 hrs.
Nowadays, high speed machines are there in market so people need support services to run for long hours. We also have introduced Caesar thread cutter in which one blade can be used four times. So, it reduces the cost as you have to buy less Caesar now. We have sold maximum numbers here at the show of the same. When compared to Delhi exhibition, people should visit Garfab Surat as here you get better variety, people here are more active and you’ll get to see better presentations. If someone wants to enter textile market he must visit Surat.
This year at Garfab we are displaying 180 heads machine, which is India’s longest machine. It is multi-function, has boring device, 3D pantograph, and can run 2 needles in one head together. Another machine on display is real high speed which when compared to German machines that costs around a crore, our machines cost within Rs. 20 lakh.
Quality wise we are similar to them as we offer same features and technical specifications. Our machine is from China, and of very good quality. In digital we have brought cotton digital printing machine on reactive i.e. direct to fabric. Today an Italian digital printing technology cost a crore but our technology is of Rs. 16 and Rs. 22 lakh and quality wise both are equal. Overall, response at Garfab show is good. For us, by each passing year the show is improving.
We are representing Zoje company for Gujarat market. We have displayed all latest sewing machines models by the company at this exhibition. Zoje machines are very famous in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Turkey and its share is increasing in Indian market. Response at this show is really good. There are not many sewing machines brands participating here which is an advantage for us.
We are happy with visitors flow and quality of infrastructure provided to us. Surat market is doing really well; sewing machines demand is also increasing as there are many textile companies converting into garments making. Earlier embroidery was only in trend due to which they were making semi stitched garments. But now customers want complete garment.