Amritsar, the land of the Golden Temple, has lots of historical significance. It has been a textile hub in the olden days and is particularly famous for shawls and blankets, which are exported worldwide. Many of the major textile mills were first established in Amritsar. But the city has been a victim of insurgencies and terrorist activities in the 70s and 80s and this has dealt a death blow to the local industries. As a result industries moved out, slowing down the overall development.

Today, the scenario is fast changing. The local entrepreneurs are determined to bring back the city to its golden days. One such group who are in the field of manufacturing and exporting blankets, shawls, stoles, scarfs have done backward integration by setting up their own yarn dyeing unit which is Shree Balaji Yarns and Textile (SBYT).

SBYT is a greenfield facility established in 2012. Construction of the factory started in 2010 and commercial production started in August 2012. SBYT is headed by two young entrepreneurs - Mr. Manish Mehra and Mr. Hitesh Khosla, Managing Director of SBYT - who have established a worldclass manufacturing facility for yarn dyeing. The company has a professional team headed by Mr. Mohinder Attiri who comes with more than 20 years of experience in the field of textile industry, particularly in dyeing and processing.

The promoters of SBYT have been in the textile industry for over 40 years. They have been sourcing dyed yarn from the market. Hence to cater to their captive requirement and to other customers, the group has now gone in for backward integration and established their own state-of-the-art dyed yarn plant. The company is also catering to the dyed yarn requirement of companies in Amritsar who are into making similar products like shawls, stoles, scarfs and blankets. Apart from the Amritsar market, SBYT is also catering to customers in Ludhiana for the woolen and cotton knitwear and hosiery segment.

SBYT has established a very modern yarn dyeing facility with a capacity to process 5000 kgs of yarn per day. “We are planning to double the capacity in the next few months”, says Mr. Manish Mehra, Managing Director of SBYT.

SBYT has all the necessary infrastructure for yarn dyeing including preparatory winding machines for soft packaging and RF dryers and cone winding machines after they dyeing process. The company has established a sophisticated testing laboratory with automated color management solutions. The heart of this manufacturing unit is the dyeing unit, for which SBYT has installed the new generation FONG’S Allwin and Labwin series of machines. The company has installed 12 machines with varying capacities starting from 3 kgs, which are used for sampling, up to 500 kgs. “In the next phase we will set up higher capacity machines of 800 and 1000 kg dyeing machines as we have increasing requirement from our customers, says Mr. Hitesh Khosla, Managing Director of SBYT.

SBYT has the capacity to dye almost types of substrates and filaments. The company can dye yarn counts from 10nm to 120nm. From 2 by 20s to 2-120nm on substrates like polyester, cotton, wool, silk, poly wool, poly viscose, poly cotton, modal, viscose and linen. The company is sourcing the basic yarn like silk and cashmere wool from China and from the domestic market. Some of the major customers of SBYT include, Ramson Exports, Piyush Overseas, Startlight Hosiery works, Southern Knitwear, Shri Ganesh enterprises among others. SBYT ‘s customers are leading exporters of high quality scarfs, stoles and shawls to global brands like GAP, Debenhams, Espirit and many global retail brands. Hence the quality of dyed yarn should be top notch with no comprise on quality.

“We want to set up an eco-friendly plant adhering to all the latest environmental protection norms. Hence before setting up the unit we evaluated many machines and finally decided to go with FONG’S. They assured us the best quality and today we are very satisfied with the performance of the machines and the output. Their transparent approach and attitude impressed us a lot. We are proud to have set up a unit which strictly confirms to the environment norms. We are very happy with FONG’S and even for our next round of capacity expansion we will go with them”, says Mr. Manish Mehra.

Out of 12 FONG’S machines installed, the company has one machines with capacity of 500 kgs, two machines of 300 kgs, another machines of 200kg capacity, 3 machines of 100 kg, one machine of 62 kg capacity, one machine of 52 kg and 2 labwin model of 10kg and 3 kg for sampling.

The FONG’S ALLWIN High Temperature Package Dyeing Machine offers an unprecedented liquor ratio as low as 1:4 with its integrated design of REV-pump, heat exchanger and the flow reversing system (patent granted). The newly designed integrated circulating system results in space saving by approx. 30% as compared with conventional machine arrangements.

The versatile machine is suitable for various types of fibres: natural and man-made fibres and their blends: 100% cotton, polyester, polyester/cotton, acrylic, polyamide (nylon), wool, ramie/ cotton etc. Different forms of yarns can be dyed such as packages, cheese, cones, hanks, loose fibre, etc. The capacity range goes from 28 kg to 9129 kg.

According to the test conducted by FONG’S National Engineering Co., Ltd, ALLWIN dyeing machines shorten the total processing time for cotton yarn down to 276 minutes, saving electrical and water consumption respectively by over 40% and chemical cost by 19% compared with conventional machines. The ILC Intelligent Levelling Control System monitors the flow through the package from outside-in to inside-out and vice versa. The ILC improves the levelling of colour through out the whole package thereby reduces yarn loss and increases reproducibility from batch to batch. The outstanding performances of these features save total production cost by 30%, making it a premium choice for yarn dyeing facilities everywhere.

The main features of this series machine are the compact piping layout which offers 25% space saving and extreme low liquor ratio of 1:4; The Fuzzy Logic Temperature Control can control the temperature inaccuracy within +/- 0.3oC; The Intelligent Leveling Control System improves leveling throughout the whole package layer and reduces yarn lost and the Advanced Intelligent Rinsing System shortens the rinsing time and reduces water consumption.

Mr Mohinder Attri says, “In terms of price, quality and output these are the best machines we have ever seen. The results of the machines are excellent. These are the latest models with the least liquor ratio hence we are able make significant savings in water, chemicals, energy, power and mostly importantly our mother earth”.

In the next phase of expansion, SBYT is also looking at further backward integration into the spinning segment and forward integration into fabric dyeing and printing segment. The company is currently catering to the requirement in the domestic market and in the future it plans to the overseas markets as well.