Schlafhorst Engineering (SEL) (formerly widely referred to as Padmatex Engineering) was formally created and deployed as a legal entity in 1981 to manufacture and market textile machinery. SEL's manufacturing units are located at Baroda and Halol (Panchmahal district), both in Gujarat.

The company has a collaboration with Schlafhorst, Germany, which is a subsidiary of the Switzerland-based Saurer group. Schlafhorst increased its equity stake in Padmatex Engineering to 55.52% and renamed it Schlafhorst Engineering. The increase in collaborators' stake is a part of Saurer's global strategy to create a wider base for manufacturing plants in the rapidly growing Asian markets. Mafatlal Industries holds an 11% equity stake in the company.

SEL, which manufactures automatic winding machines for the textile industry, has been facing stiff competition from international manufacturers. Textile manufacturers have been opting for imports of second-hand automatic winding machines which work out to be cheaper. Moreover, there is a flood of automatic winding machines from Japanese manufacturers. Gujarat Textronics is the subsidiary of SEL. The company has introduced a new model -- Autoconer 238 -- which has received a good market response.

Due to the reduction in the consumption of textiles the Vadodara factory closed from 01.05.1999, after implementing VRS and trasferring the remaining employees to Halol. Also during the year 1999, the company has been declared as a Sick company by the BIFR and ICICI its operating agency proposes to submit a revival plan shortly.

Assuming that the insitiutions will support the company and the Governemnt of Gujarat would grant Vadodara property zone change from industrial to commercial/residential, a revival proposal has been submitted to ICICI in Jul.'00 to enable them to finally prepare a rehanilitation scheme and submitting it to BIFR.