TAKING THE DEFINITION OF COMFORT FORWARD WITH TECHNOLOGY

Von Wellx Germany recently made headlines when it decided to shut its China operation. It claims that the decision was made as it believes that India is going to be the next manufacturing powerhouse of the world. In an interview with S&A, Ashish Jain, CEO and Director, Von Wellx Germany, said, “The positive intentions from the Govt., the demographic dividend of India and raw material availability were the top 3 winners for India. We are working very closely with the UP Govt. to help us in executing the whole plan.”

You have recently shifted the brand’s production from China to India. What factors induced you to take that decision? Footwear is one of the top labour intensive industries in the world - raw material and labour availability drives its economic advantage. India has both good leather and cheap labour availability. So, the positive intentions from the Govt., the demographic dividend of India and raw material availability were the top 3 winners for India. We are working very closely with the UP Govt. to help us in executing the whole plan. The company chose India over other locations since it believes that India is going to be the next manufacturing powerhouse of the world, if it is well supported by business conducive Govt. policies. Apart from that, we have been manufacturing pilot projects in India over the past one year with Iatric Industries Pvt. Ltd and have had very encouraging results. So, it was pretty clear that we could make the shift.

The Indian government has been calling for brands to manufacture in India. According to you, what more should the govt. do to make manufacturing more conducive?