Page 67 - MASALA Magazine Vol.15 Issue 3 | February - March 2024

selected by the United Nations Industrial
Development (UNIDO), a joint initiative Factories are still viable…
with the Swiss government, as one of two You have to
people from Thailand to go to Switzerland
for high-level technical training. This was adapt yourself as
out of a pool of hundreds of people. After
returning, I became one of the most in- per the conditions.
demand factory managers in the industry
because of all the knowledge I’d received.

I also received the Hind Ratan reward from
the Indian government for achievement
and contributions of training Thai textile
industry personnel, which I’m very humbled
to have received. Other achievements I hold
dear were being invited by Thaper Group
to India to give them the technology to
produce a special fabric which they could
not produce, and to a textile factory in
Pakistan to teach them the technology
to produce high-class spun rayon printed
fabric.

Throughout your career, how have
international trade dynamics and global
market trends influenced the Thai
textiles industry, and how did businesses
adapt to these changes? Could you
highlight any specific innovations or
breakthroughs you’ve witnessed in the
textile manufacturing processes during
your tenure in the industry?

At one point, the industry was all about
normal prints (easy designs). Everyone wanted
cheap products. Now, people are coming
back towards slow fashion and better-quality
products. Before, the cost of making better-
quality designs was high, as you had to make
printing plates or screens, and there were
minimum order quantities to stay profitable.
Since the last 8 to 10 years, there has been a
new printing system called the Digital Printing
System. It’s a very small machine, which only
requires 1-2 employees. Short runs like 10
yards or 50 yards are possible (in the past
the minimum was 5,000 yards), no sereen is
required, and no colour kitchen is required.

One disadvantage which people don’t discuss,
however, is that digital printing is what we call
3D printing, with depth. However, because
it is only a surface printing, the fabrics will
lose the prints faster, with fewer washes than
conventional prints, where the dyes are thrust
into the core of the yarn. And because you
don’t mix the colours yourself, the price of the
colours is quite high. Digital printing started
in Europe and Japan and it used to be quite
expensive, but then China and India started
producing the machines, and now the Digital
Printing prices have dropped from around
THB 160 to THB 30 per yard. This has, and
will continue to, change the industry. Factories
who want to survive will have to adopt digital
printing on top of conventional printing.