Shaping the Textile Future: A Collaborative Dialogue Between India, Germany, and EU Textile Leaders

Dr. Gloy & Anton Schu­mann

At the pres­ti­gious Heim­tex­til 2025 in Frank­furt, a vibrant meet­ing of minds took place, unit­ing glob­al lead­ers from India, Ger­many, and the Euro­pean Union to dis­cuss the future of the tex­tile indus­try. The event, spear­head­ed by Union Min­is­ter Giri­raj Singh of the Indi­an Gov­ern­ment and orga­nized by Gherzi Ger­many, served as a pow­er­ful plat­form to address the crit­i­cal themes of sus­tain­abil­i­ty, dig­i­tal­iza­tion, and cross-bor­der invest­ment in tex­tiles.

Key gov­ern­ment and indus­try stake­hold­ers, includ­ing Rohit Kansal, Addi­tion­al Sec­re­tary (Tex­tiles), Naren Goen­ka, Chair­man of BTTF, and Bhadresh Dod­hia, Co-Chair­man of BTTF, joined forces with vision­ary cor­po­rate lead­ers to forge a sus­tain­able path for­ward.

Highlights of the Dialogue: Perspectives from Global Leaders

Deepali Goen­ka – CEO, Wel­spun Indus­tries (India)

Deepali Goen­ka pas­sion­ate­ly empha­sized sus­tain­abil­i­ty as the cor­ner­stone of future busi­ness prac­tices, announc­ing Welspun’s ambi­tious goal of achiev­ing CO₂ neu­tral­i­ty by 2030. She high­light­ed the company’s open­ness to inno­v­a­tive tech­nolo­gies and sup­ply chain trans­for­ma­tions to dri­ve effi­cien­cy and envi­ron­men­tal respon­si­bil­i­ty.

Wern­er Moser – Head of Sales, MATTES Group (Ger­many)

Rep­re­sent­ing one of Germany’s lead­ing tech­ni­cal tex­tiles pro­duc­ers, Wern­er Moser praised the tech­ni­cal exper­tise and reli­a­bil­i­ty of Indi­an part­ners, not­ing their advanced capa­bil­i­ties in sup­ply chain man­age­ment. He expressed keen inter­est in pur­su­ing joint ven­tures in India, espe­cial­ly with­in the auto­mo­tive and tech­ni­cal tex­tiles sec­tors, where col­lab­o­ra­tion could unlock unpar­al­leled growth.

Sebas­t­ian van de Loo & Kai Timpe – Lead­ers, DMIX Col­ordig­i­tal (Ger­many)

The DMIX team show­cased their cut­ting-edge col­or-match­ing soft­ware, which stream­lines sup­ply chain oper­a­tions while con­serv­ing water, ener­gy, and resources. They expressed an eager­ness to part­ner with Indi­an firms to rev­o­lu­tion­ize dig­i­tal­iza­tion in the tex­tile sup­ply chain, fos­ter­ing sus­tain­able inno­va­tion.

San­jeev Gre­w­al – Head of MEAP, AMANN Group (India)

Hav­ing launched oper­a­tions in India in 2024, AMANN Group was rec­og­nized as India’s Sus­tain­able Com­pa­ny of the Year 2024. San­jeev Gre­w­al out­lined plans to deep­en part­ner­ships in India, striv­ing for CO₂ neu­tral­i­ty and con­tin­ued advance­ments in sus­tain­able prac­tices. Fur­ther talks are planned at the Bhara­tex forum in New Del­hi, mark­ing a piv­otal moment for India-Ger­many tex­tile col­lab­o­ra­tion.

Prof. Thomas Gries – Dean, Tex­tile Depart­ment, RWTH Aachen Uni­ver­si­ty (Ger­many)

Pro­fes­sor Gries brought an aca­d­e­m­ic per­spec­tive, envi­sion­ing a future where cross-bor­der edu­ca­tion and knowl­edge-shar­ing plat­forms empow­er a new gen­er­a­tion of tex­tile engi­neers and man­agers. He pro­posed estab­lish­ing a joint India-Ger­many dig­i­tal data­base, akin to trans­for­ma­tive tools like Chat­G­PT, to equip indus­try pro­fes­sion­als with real-time solu­tions.

Kon­stan­tin Rou­ette – Own­er, Rou­ette Exec­u­tive Search (Ger­many)

As a renowned head­hunter in the tech­ni­cal indus­tries, Rou­ette under­scored the demo­graph­ic poten­tial of India’s youth­ful work­force. He advo­cat­ed for poli­cies that encour­age local oper­a­tions with a glob­al out­look, stress­ing the impor­tance of seam­less gov­ern­ment and cor­po­rate col­lab­o­ra­tion.

Chris­t­ian Rost – CEO, ROFA (Ger­many)

As a leader in work­wear man­u­fac­tur­ing, Chris­t­ian Rost praised India’s ver­ti­cal sup­ply chains, which enable both high qual­i­ty and reli­a­bil­i­ty. He expressed opti­mism about sourc­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties in India, rec­og­niz­ing its grow­ing promi­nence in the glob­al tex­tile land­scape.

Flo­ri­an Schu­mach­er, Fabi­an Scholz & Sal­varaj J – Li & Fung (Glob­al)

Rep­re­sen­ta­tives of Li & Fung high­light­ed India’s poten­tial as a glob­al sourc­ing hub, par­tic­u­lar­ly as the tex­tile indus­try shifts its focus from East Asia. They empha­sized India’s strate­gic advan­tage in sup­ply chain inte­gra­tion and its capac­i­ty to meet EU and MEA mar­ket demands, solid­i­fy­ing its role in the 21st-cen­tu­ry tex­tile econ­o­my.

Anton Schu­mann & Dr. Gloy – Gherzi Ger­many

The rep­re­sen­ta­tives of Gherzi Ger­many facil­i­tat­ed dis­cus­sions with ener­gy and enthu­si­asm, not­ing the syn­er­gy among par­tic­i­pants and the shared vision for a sus­tain­able tex­tile future.

Key Takeaways from the Forum

This land­mark event illu­mi­nat­ed the untapped poten­tial for col­lab­o­ra­tion between India, Ger­many, and the EU in tex­tiles. Dis­cus­sions cen­tered on:

• Sus­tain­abil­i­ty: Set­ting ambi­tious CO₂ neu­tral­i­ty tar­gets and fos­ter­ing eco-friend­ly inno­va­tion.
• Dig­i­tal­iza­tion: Adopt­ing advanced tech­nolo­gies for seam­less design, devel­op­ment, and sup­ply chain man­age­ment.
• Invest­ment Oppor­tu­ni­ties: Build­ing joint ven­tures and strength­en­ing cross-bor­der sup­ply chains.

A heart­felt thank you to Min­is­ter Giri­raj Singh, Gherzi Ger­many, and all par­tic­i­pants for ignit­ing such a for­ward-think­ing dia­logue. This col­lab­o­ra­tion sym­bol­izes a unit­ed com­mit­ment to shap­ing a sus­tain­able, inno­v­a­tive, and inclu­sive tex­tile indus­try for gen­er­a­tions to come.