The Hindu Business Line : Juki Corp not in a hurry on India investment plans

Mr Takeo Yamaoka, Chairman, Juki Corporation, Japan (second right), at the ‘Juki Expo 2007’, the industrial sewing machine exhibition, inaugurated at Tirupur on Friday. Mr Mohan Kandasamy (right), President of South India Hosiery Manufacturers Association, and Mr Ahil Ratnasamy (second left), President of Knit Cloth Manufacturers Association, are also seen.

G. Gurumurthy

Tirupur, Sept.7

Juki Corporation, the industrial and household sewing machinery group, sees India’s apparel and textile sector is on high growth path, but the Japanese technology conglomerate prefers to allow the market to evolve further on volumes before it can sew up an investment proposal in the sub-continent.

“We do not have any investment proposal for India for the next one or two years. The market appears not big enough to justify any immediate proposal,” said Mr Takeo Yamaoka, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Juki Corporation. Mr Yamaoka, however, pointed out that as India’s textile and apparel market kept up its growth streaks, his company would not entirely discount an investment possibility for Juki either.

Juki Expo

Mr Yamaoka and a host of senior Juki officials including the President/CEO of Juki, Japan, Mr Kozuyuki Nakamura, and the Managing Director of its Indian subsidiary, Mr Saito Noriaki, were interacting with the members of the press on the eve of ‘Juki Expo 2007’ its first ever industrial exhibition on sewing technology in this part. Juki has been posting a robust growth in its industrial sewing machinery sale in India in the last two years that accounts for more than 25 per cent of its market share, though China continues to be its high volume market (at $192 million in 2006). Value of its sewing machinery shipment to India has surged by 58 per cent from $19 million in 2004 to $30 million in 2005. Its despatches during 2006 was again up to $34 million when it sold about 43,000 sewing machines in Indian market.

Though a late entrant into knitwear segment, Juki betting on its quality, technology and well-knit customer service networking, besides its offer of training on machinery application to the user industry, is set on greater market penetration in India in tandem with the greater investments being made on modernisation by the domestic garment sector.

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