In this second report from India, editor Pilar Santamaria, reports how Garware-Wall Ropes, Pune, is counting on innovation, quality and price to keep growing in a difficult market.
The company has every reason to be optimistic because its fishing division is growing at a steady average p.a. Managers says that its system of encouraging feedback from customers around the world helps this and leads to high levels of confidence, enthusiasm and energy within the company to keep supplying the industry with new, quality, value-added products.
Latest developments include the production of nylon pelagic nets and the capacity to offer complete packages of purse seine, gillnets, trawl and aquaculture products (the new knotless machine, built for this purpose, is already producing gear). Its flagship products Sapphire and Olivene netting are reported to be doing very well at home and abroad and the company is also developing ropes for specific applications.
One of the latest of these to be introduced to the market is Maxilon rope, a combination rope (PE/PA) designed specifically for mid-water and deep-sea work. According to Prashant Parkhe, ropes development manager, the new rope has excellent properties for outdoor exposure. “These ropes have a unique, doubled-braided construction with nylon as the core and polyethylene as the cover material. The nylon gives the strength and the polyethylene provides the resistance to abrasion. In addition, special treatment is carried out on the core of the rope for better shrinkage and elongation properties,” he explained.
The company says that marketing for the Maxilon is now in full swing and it expects good sales in the USA and Northern Europe.
Mr Parkhe says that they are also manufacturing Maxima twine and netting. “Customers were buying Maxima rope and we have now started to offer Maxima twine and netting, which has a good potential in Europe with special pelagic trawling applications for smaller boats.” He highlights the good buoyancy properties for better opening of the nets and the high breaking strength that allows downsizing, reducing the weight and also drag on the boat. The first target market for this product is Spain.
Another example of specific applications for customer needs is the Braided Float rope, used as a partial or full replacement of conventional floats for gill netting and pelagic fishing. This has float beads inserted in the core of the rope at the time of braiding.
They have also introduced lead-weighted ropes, specially designed as foot ropes for different applications where sinking properties are essential, for example in tuna cages, purse seines and gill nets. The company points out its very high specific gravity when compared with synthetic ropes of the same size.
An eight braid, purse-seine rope, traditionally used for mooring, has now been specially developed for purse-seining. Then there is Garware-Wall Ropes newly manufactured Long-line rope, a hard laid rope with anti UV additives and surface-tarred to give more resistance against chafing. The company says that the rope has good abrasion resistance and weather ability. Most importantly the rope has balanced construction and does not “kink” .
Local market
The company also looks after the domestic market where its Indian brand name Garfil has a 90 per cent share of the fishing net and twine market and 80 per cent of the fishing rope sector. Indian fisheries are undergoing a process of significant change as the country strives to develop a more productive, sustainable and modern fishing industry. “Garware-Wall Ropes collaborates in this objective by introducing innovative and more efficient ecological fishing methods,” states G. Renjith, market development officer.
The Trawl Winch Rope, a new type of rope, is an example of a product specifically developed for the domestic market. Mr Parkhe says that the new rope was manufactured as a replacement for the nine mm wire rope used on winch drums on trawls.
“The new rope is much more economical as it does not require as much maintenance as the wire rope. It is also lighter and with good breaking strength. It also keeps some properties of the steel wire like good sinking rate and good absorption capacity,” Mr. Parkhe added. Indian fishermen are also good buyers of Sapphire.
Customer feedback
The international market is served by distributors and targets fleet managers and skippers around the world through four company offices in the USA, Europe, Africa and Australia.
World Fishing contacted some of Garware-Wall's customers and learnt that even though they may be using different fishing gear and targeting different species, long-lasting products, quality and a good response to customer's problems were named as important factors in the buying patterns of most users.
For example, for the last two years Tide Marine in the US has been buying Garware-Wall Ropes twines and nets and recently bought ropes for shrimpers on the South Atlantic Coast. According to Harold Floore, president of the company, customers valued Garware's long-lasting nylon products with skippers also reporting a reduction in fuel consumption.
In Scotland, Olivene is very popular and Jackson Trawls expects Sapphire to be a success too. “Olivene is very popular with skippers because of its good abrasion quality but it looks as if Sapphire might take over.”
Scottish skipper Gavin Than has already changed to 3mm Sapphire from 4mm Olivene for twin rigging and reported a reduction in fuel consumption. “Using sapphire I also need less fuel due to a drag reduction, while it lasts no less than Olivene.” He said that he would stick with Olivene in single trawls.
James Stephen, skipper of the 28-metre whitefish trawler Harvest Hope, which targets mainly saithe, whiting, cod and ground fish in the North Sea, says that he will continue using Olivene nettings and twines and praised Garware-Wall Ropes for the way it responded to feedback from the industry.
The same reaction came from Mark Buchan at Jackson Trawls. “Garware-Wall Ropes sells a good product, the company is very helpful and it responds to all queries.”
Isefell said that Garware-Wall Ropes products were doing very well with Icelandic customers on both price and quality.
Phil Robson, Down Under fleet master with fishing company Raptis and Sons, said that some boats targeting prawns had started to use Sapphire and they were very pleased about how the nets moved through the water.
New Zealand catching and processing company Sealord is using Olivene because it suits its type of deep bottom trawling in pursuit of hoki and orange roughy. Bill Healey from Sealord said: “We had our doubts when we moved to GWR´s products but our doubts proved wrong. Attractive pricing, and the quality and the service remained,” he said.
GWR business also includes sports netting and Geosynthetics, sector in which the company expects a 100% growth this year.
[The editor was a guest of Garware-Wall Ropes]
