The Hindu Business Line : `Product innovation key for European textile players'

EUROPEAN textile manufacturers will have to rely on their strengths in the field of product innovation and services in order to survive once quotas are phased out in 2005, according to Ms Isa Hoffman, a textile consultant based in Germany.

Product innovation and services, she says, would be the assets for competition and the key to growth in the future.

Speaking to Business Line, Ms Hoffman said that the European and the US-based manufacturers would also have to strike strategic alliances with producers in Asia, especially the production-strong Chinese manufacturers. Ms Hoffman was in India recently to attend an international textile seminar.

"International companies can only face the competition by selling know-how intensive products to the Chinese market and by focusing on the quality and technology lead," she says.

Partnerships and joint ventures with Chinese companies are necessary for the European and the US textile players if they want to sell to the Chinese market in a medium term. "Beyond collaboration, the industry needs to perpetuate a spirit of innovation," she said

India, she feels, is a promising export market for the EU and the US companies in the medium term. India has great potential in terms of its production capacity, manpower, and knowledge base.

Providing examples of product innovation in the West, she says technical textiles are likely to develop into a niche market for companies based in Europe and the US.

These textiles promise good business potential, with worldwide consumption expected to touch 19.58 million tonnes by 2005 and 23.63 m.t. by 2010. In 2000, consumption of technical textiles stood at 16.69 m.t.

Technical textiles find application in several fields such as agriculture, where the worldwide consumption in 2000 stood at 13.81 lakh tonnes, in the building industry (16.48 lakh tonnes), clothing industry (12.38 lakh tonnes), the medical field (15.43 lakh tonnes) and even sports (9.89 lakh tonnes), among others.