Besides offering training, the company will facilitate entrepreneurs to avail subsidy-linked bank loans toward the procurement of handloom machines. The company will also supply raw materials, and buy back finished products.  The entity simultaneously launched its Saral brand of handloom-based clothing such as dhoties, kidswear, and silk gowns. It already manufactures and exports table, bed and kitchen linen, window treatments, and hand quilts to North America, Europe.

 

Senthil, MD, of the firm said the advantages of handloom are personalisation and comfort, thanks to ‘marupini’ technique used by weavers.  Though the number of handlooms had drastically decreased  in the past - from 5 lakh handlooms in 1950 to just about 2 lakh handlooms today in Tamil Nadu, with the advent of powerlooms, the market potential for handloom products has been steadily increasing. According to the Ministry of Textiles, the sector has the potential to scale up to a market size of about Rs 4 lakh cr by 2024 from the estimated size of Rs  1 lakh cr today.