According to Manesh Kumar, manager-marketing, Shiva Texyarn, the entry in the textile printing market was in response to the developments in the digital print market. “Slowly paper market is being captured by textiles,” he said.

This is the company’s first reach out at the media expo, where they are displaying their two products Intensipix and Q-Print. Intensipix is an acid-free textured digital inkjet canvas for printing, while Q-Print is an eco-friendly textile media that is compatible with several printing technologies. The company manufactures these products in its Coimbatore plant.

“We also export these products to UK, Europe, US and China,” said R Balakrishnan, senior manager, Shiva Texyarn.  With the devaluation of Rupees, the company has benefited a lot. “The company currently has a business volume of Rs 30 lakh for its art canvas product-line, and expects the same to touch around Rs 50 lakh by the end of FY2013-14.  The exports of the digital inkjet canvas stands around Rs 5cr,” added Balakrishnan

With the digital textile market at its nascent stages the company has been facing tough competition from unbranded products in the art canvas segment, while the inkjet digital textile printing market is gradually started accepting media manufactured in India. Elaborating on the same, he said, “Earlier, the competition was against the Chinese manufacturers. With the increase in the awareness of the customers, we see a lot of traction in our products. It’s time the industry adopts the mantra of ‘be Indian, buy Indian’.”