Mr. Sanjeev Kapoor, CEO of Indian Silks shares consumer preferences when it comes to Mattress Fabric and also shares his company’s expansion plans over the next 5 years.
Q Mattress Fabric- What is trending for consumers?
There are two segments of consumers. One is the high-end, and one is the general market. The general market is going downwards. They are looking for cheaper products. There’s a lot of competition in the general market and mostly unorganized sector is catering to this market. For the corporate and the branded fabric, they search for good quality. And they don’t want to go to small suppliers who compromise on quality. This segment is going and a lot of innovative products are being explored in this segment.
Q How big is the Indian mattress textile market?
Difficult to put a number on the market size. But it is growing at an average of 15 percent – 20 percent per annum
Q What innovations we can expect from Indian silks in the next two years?
We are doubling our capacity every 15 – 16 months. This Diwali has not been very great for the manufacturers and there’s a bit of a recession now. It was expected to be very nice this year. But the current sentiment of the market is not very nice for all the factors including electronics and consumable products and others. We are planning to bring out a few innovations in the fabric part.
Q Market is mainly dominated by very few players. Do you see more players entering this place?
I don’t think so. There’s a lot of space at the top. There are a lot of consolidations at the top that the brand will be pushing with better qualities and better products. I mean they don’t want to buy quality products like ours. So there’s a lot of competition in the unorganized sector. So people who are supplying to an unorganized sector cannot supply to the organized sector and people who are supplying to the organized sector cannot give the package that what unorganized sector requires.
Q What is your vision for Indian Silks?
We have done a big innovation. We will be the first company to give oil-free fabric. We have started giving oil-free fabric. All metal fabric had 3 percent anti-setting oil. We are setting that oil from the fabric so that the fabric doesn’t smell. There’s a pungent smell if there is oil in the fabric. Over time when oil decays, there’s no smell coming in and there is an oil mark or bacteria or something like that will set in on the fabric. So, we will be the first company that will always be different from other suppliers.