Bangladesh remains a key market in Shree Pushkar Chemicals & Fertilisers Ltd.’s growth plans as the company expands its reactive dye production and strengthens its local presence. After entering the Bangladesh market in 2018-19, the Indian dye manufacturer has increased its reactive dye production capacity from around 450 tons to 800 tons per month. The company is now planning local warehousing in Bangladesh to provide faster stock support to customers.

In an interview with Textile Today, Dr. N. N. Mahapatra, Business Head (Dyes), Shree Pushkar Chemicals & Fertilisers Ltd., discussed the company’s expansion plans, sustainable dyeing solutions, backward integration, changing raw material dynamics, certification requirements and the growing need for stronger R&D collaboration between Bangladesh’s textile industry and universities.

Figure: Dr. N. N. Mahapatra, Business Head (Dyes), Shree Pushkar Chemicals & Fertilisers Ltd.

Textile Today: Shree Pushkar has been in the Bangladesh market for the last eight years. What has been your experience?

Dr. Mahapatra: Bangladesh is a very huge market for textile garments, textile fabrics and related industries. We are having a good experience and growing year by year. We also have our next plan, how to grow our business further. All these are in the pipeline.

Textile Today: Over the last two years, you have increased your production of para-VS and reactive dyes. Where do you stand now?

Dr. Nanda Mahapatra: Initially, we were manufacturing reactive dyes at about 450 tons per month. We have now reached around 800 tons of reactive dyes per month.

Textile Today: What are your new plans for increasing your sales volume in Bangladesh?

Dr. Mahapatra: What we observe is that many companies here need local stock and local support for dyes. Suppose they receive an export order and open an LC. If the shipment comes from India, it may take around 20 days. But the customer cannot wait for the shipment to arrive. So, they want local support. For that, we have a plan to start a warehouse, keeping a minimum stock of 50 tons.

At any time, if a customer needs 100 kilos, 200 kilos, or 500 kilos, we can issue the dyes from our warehouse, which will be situated in Dhaka or nearby Dhaka for easy operation.

We have also registered a company in Dhaka. Through this company, we will operate and bring stock from our Indian company to the Bangladesh company.

Textile Today: Please give your insights about the new sustainable dyes you are introducing to the market.

Dr. Mahapatra: Regarding sustainable dyes, nowadays the main problem is water. Water consumption in textiles is very huge, and everybody is thinking that there will be a scarcity of water. So, everybody is interested in using less water in the dyeing process. That is why we have come out with a special range known as Digold Care ESN Series. It can be dyed at 60°C, and soaping can also be done at 60°C. After three washes, the dye liquor becomes clear and the water is clear.

That means you are saving time, saving water and saving steam. Overall, your utility cost will come down. This will be very helpful for the final pricing of your product.

Textile Today: There is stiff competition among dye manufacturers from India, China, Korea and Taiwan. What is your position regarding this competition?

Dr. Mahapatra: We manufacture sulphuric acid, thionyl chloride, chlorosulphonic acid, H-acid, VS (Vinyl Sulphone) and other raw materials required to manufacture reactive dyes. That is why our product cost is very competitive, and we can give a very good price for our dyes to be used in Bangladesh. The costing is in our hand because we manufacture the raw materials ourselves. We do not buy the raw materials from the market like other manufacturers. We have our own in-house raw material manufacturing and in-house reactive dye manufacturing.

That is our main advantage compared with Korean, Taiwanese or Chinese companies.

Textile Today: What is the speciality of your dyes compared with local Ahmedabad manufacturers?

Dr. Mahapatra: The basic difference is our manufacturing system. There are many small-scale dye and dyeing units, with capacities of 50 tons a day, 50 tons a month or 100 tons a month. Some of these units are also exporting to Bangladesh.

These are small units, and many are basically a one-man show. The owner looks after quality control, raw material purchase and marketing. In that case, obviously, there can be quality consistency problems.

In our case, we have certifications such as bluesign, OEKO-TEX ECO PASSPORT, GOTS and ZDHC. These certifications are very costly. We are one of the few bluesign-certified companies in India. The annual renewal of bluesign itself costs around INR 36 lakh.

All these certifications have annual renewal requirements. The certification process is also very strict. In a bluesign audit, the audit team comes to our factory and checks how we manufacture, how we import raw materials and how the raw materials are tested. Every point is checked before passing the audit. Similar audits are conducted for OEKO-TEX as well.

Textile Today: Do you have any other plans for the Bangladesh market?

Dr. Mahapatra: Bangladesh’s market can basically be divided into three parts: big corporate units, semi-corporate units and small units. We are mainly focusing on medium-scale and big corporate houses where factories give importance to quality and certifications. These are the types of factories we are targeting.

Textile Today: You are a leading textile technocrat with 42 years of experience in the textile and dyes industries, working in India and abroad. What is your advice for the Bangladesh textile industry?

Dr. Mahapatra: What I have observed is that compared with other advanced countries, the Bangladesh textile industry lacks research and development. More focus should be given to R&D.

Companies should devote 2-3% of their profit to CSR activities and research and development activities.

A few years back, I also gave an idea to Bangladesh that the textile industry could be divided into four zones—north, south, east and west—and each zone should have an R&D institute, similar to the institutes in India such as NITRA – Northern India Textile Research Association, SITRA – South India Textile Research Association and ATIRA – Ahmedabad Textile Industry’s Research Association.

Textile Today: You have completed writing 17 books on textile processing, based on your practical experience. What is your next book?

Dr. Mahapatra: Two books are already in the pipeline. One is on Modern Textile Technology, covering the new technologies that have come up in the textile industry. The other is on Sustainable Innovation, covering the sustainable innovations being done in textile industries.

Textile Today: Lastly, where do you think Bangladesh’s textile industries and textile universities are lacking? What advice would you give based on your academic and industrial experience?

Dr. Mahapatra: I was giving a lecture at BUTEX last year. BUTEX is the number one textile university in Bangladesh.

I am very much acquainted with Bangladeshi students because I taught them in China. Many of my students are now in Dhaka. I find them very studious and very learned.

But I always advise the students and professors that universities in Bangladesh should have two types of research. One should be pure science research, and the other should be applied research.

Pure research means something new that has to be developed at laboratory scale and then converted into bulk scale.

Applied research means professors and students should take up one problem from an industry. Industry people do not have enough time for R&D work. They have people working in quality control, production, quality and application service, but they often do not have the time for R&D.

There should therefore be coordination between textile factories and universities, and they should work jointly.

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