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Background
Thea-Tex Healthcare (India) Pvt. Ltd. is India's
leading manufacturer of non woven
medical/industrial disposables. The company was
incorporated at Mumbai ( India ) during 2004 and
commenced commercial production as recently as
2005. The unique company name is an amalgamation
of the two words ‘ Thea tre Textiles'. In 2004,
the Promoters identified that the Indian market
for non woven disposables was very small, highly
unorganized and theatre textiles predominantly
consisted of traditional textiles such as
cotton/cloth. By 2005, we launched the company by
importing very sophisticated, high capacity
ultrasonic non woven converting machinery and
slashed existing market rates by as much as 50% in
order to create the non woven disposables market
in India.
Quality Management
Promoted by Resident and Non-Resident Indians
focused on building an organization of
International Standards, Thea-Tex is
professionally managed by a synergistic team of
financial, medical, production and textile
professionals. The top management is passionately
committed to total quality management (TQM)
principles. For six long months in 2006, each and
every member of Thea-Tex staff was rigorously
involved in the implementation of the ISO 9001
standard. We selected the reputed British
Standards Institution as our accreditation agency
aligning ourselves with the best global
organizations. On 27th October 2006 Thea-Tex was
awarded ISO 9001 Certificate by BSI.
Machinery
Our hi-tech automated ultrasonic production lines
were imported from Taiwan at the start of 2005
with an initial installed capacity of 5,000,000
Pieces/Month. This has since been increased to
10,000,000 Pieces/Month within two years,
demonstrating our mission to keep expanding.
Additional machinery has also been ordered to
further increase production capacities by 2008.
Our in-house fabric slitting department houses two
domestically manufactured 1600mm slitting
machines, ensuring precision raw material inputs
to our ultrasonic machines. The tailoring
department comprises in excess of 50 imported
stitching/overlock machines.
Infrastructure
Our hi-Tech manufacturing unit is located at a
CIDCO approved Industrial Estate in the thriving
industrial area of Vasai, Maharashtra , India (15
minutes outside of Mumbai's Octrai Tax Checkpoint
– ‘' Check Naka''). The industrial zone is linked
well to major ports and cities via the main
highway NH-8 and serviced by all major transport
groups such as Om Logistics, KTC, VRL, SRD, Jaipur
Golden, Surat Ahmedabad etc. We are also we
serviced by reputed courier companies such as Blue
Dart, Professional Couriers, DTDC, etc to ensure
timely dispatch of shipping documents. The floor
space is currently 20,000 Sq Ft with major
expansion plans under development. A land bank of
2 acres has been secured locally for our next
expansion project. Our unit has air conditioned
manufacturing, packing and office areas, supported
by compulsory rules for all staff/visitors to wear
protective apparel. We are active and life long
members of the local ‘Gowalis Industries
Association' which gives us a platform to improve
the infrastructure and support of local industries
and integrate smoothly with the residents of the
surrounding villages.
Raw Material
Our main raw material is medical grade non woven
fabric engineered on German Reifenhauser
production lines. Unfortunately, due to the
non-availability of quality non woven fabric
domestically we import approximately 40,000 Kg of
fabric per month from the worlds leading
manufacturers. In addition to this advantage of
high quality medical grade fabrics, the cost
benefit of importing the raw material is directly
passed on to our customers, providing both a high
quality and economical product. All of our
suppliers periodically supply testing reports for
the fabric from internationally accredited
laboratories such as the FDA accredited Nelson
Labs (Salt Lake City, UTAH, USA). Other than non
woven fabrics, we ensure that all of our raw
materials are of the highest quality ranging from
the latex free elastic to the 100 Gsm PP Bags
through to the 7-Ply 140 Gsm corrugated packaging
cartons, however we maintain low costs through
bulk purchasing contracts.
Pricing Strategy
The basic underlying philosophy at Thea-Tex is to
offer the lowest price possible, without cutting
corners or reducing the quality of our product. We
understand that being a disposable product and
with the objective of displacing traditional
textiles like cotton, this product must be priced
low and supplied in large volumes.
The Future – International Quality Standards
Unfortunately, in India this industry in not
regulated and there are no standards related to
our products, although we are trying our level
best with organizations such as the Bureau of
Indian Standards (BIS) and the Ministry of Health
and Family Welfare (MHFW). Currently we are very
focused on consolidating our position in the
domestic market as the industry leader. However,
we continue to plan long term and at some point in
the future we will be entering the International
market. In association with Underwriters
Laboratories Inc., preparation of our 510(k)
Pre-Market Notification to the FDA has started for
the US market. For the European market, we have
self-certified our non-sterile masks and caps,
which are classified as Class 1 Medical Devices
under the European Medical Devices Directive MDD
93/42/EEC. After ensuring the our products meet
the Essential Requirements in Annexure 1 of the
MDD, an EC Declaration of Conformity has been
prepared by meeting the requirements and
procedures referred to in Annexure VII and other
related Articles of the MDD 93/42/EEC. We have
already registered with the Medicines and
Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA-UK)
via our authorized representative Oria Commerce
(UK) Ltd (Southampton-UK). Currently we are
working on meeting the new European Standard on
Surgical Face Masks released in 2005 and working
with the Government to get an NABL accredited
testing laboratories established in India to
facilitate meeting such standards without the high
expenditure of foreign testing. We are the first
company in India that established Bacteria
Filtration Efficiency Testing (ASTM F 2101-01) in
association with the Bombay Textile Research
Association (BTRA).
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