Did we realize? 

Anyone who is not correctly aligned with market trends, not focusing on product diversification & ends up making the same or similar products are facing challenging times these days. Be it a vendor, student, or textile retailer, it's time to adopt a diversified approach to become successful in this challenging environment.

In my observation, some of the challenges faced by the people in the textile industry in recent times are;

1. Businesses are struggling to sustain themselves & unsure of what to make and offer to customers to stabilize themselves.
2. Mills & vendor partners are falling short of orders against their capacity
3. More & more people are available & looking for opportunities 
4. The majority of the students are only looking at apparel textiles for their careers and overlooking other segments of the textile industry.

In this article, we shall see one of the less focused textile segments which has plenty of opportunity in terms of business as well as a career for many. Post pandemic, globally this is one of the segments which has seen a rise in consumption. In the textile industry, one of the neglected business segments is home textiles.

As we all know recent exorbitant yarn price increase, supply-related challenges on finer yarn counts suitable for making apparel has become a big challenge for businesses, mills & vendors in the apparel segment. But, in the case of home textiles which largely requires coarser yarn counts & different base qualities is faring better in terms of price & supply.

Let’s refresh-Home textiles

Home textiles are an important part of our lives; it helps a person in adding his personalized touch to his home, or as many would say “they convert a house into a home”. 

It refers to textiles that are used in a home. For eg:- curtains, shower curtains, bedspreads, pillow covers, upholstery, aprons, etc., 

Hubs & their strengths 

Like any other industry Home textile industry is also widespread in India, major home textile hubs are

• Karur- various products in cotton with specialized finishes like PVA, Starch, silicon, stain & water repellent. Organic cotton is a recent addition to this list.
• Chennai - unique, innovative products, mass volume manufacturers, source raw materials from part of hubs of various qualities.
• Panipat - products with base of woolen, polyester, silk & poly-silk. Recent developments are the use of bamboo & soya.
• Cannanore - value additions products with embroidery, beadwork & sequins made out of cotton viscose, silk & cotton bases.
• Mumbai & surroundings - unique, innovative products, mass volume manufacturers 
• Bengaluru - silk, art silk, wool silk & cotton silk products with modern technology & efficient infrastructure 
• Mirzapur and Badhohi in UP - carpets
• Jaipur - tie and dye, block-printing, applique, beadwork & value-added products

Business value Statistics

Home textile industry business has great potential. It is always better to review things with data to understand. Here is the value of the home textile industry in India years 2014, 2018 & with an estimate for 2021. It shows clear potential & the kind of growth this industry can gain if we take this business seriously.

*** data courtesy- statista.com, special thanks to them.

The above stats make it quite apparent that the Home Textile has a lot of potential.

Reality check

When we closely observe the home textile industry the number of organized players, the number of mills/vendors who work for this segment & the people who choose their career path in this segment is low, whereas the growth potential is much larger than what we do not realize.

If we closely observe at an individual level or even at a textile business perspective be it in India or overseas, we all will agree that home textiles merchandise has been renewed more than apparel, considering the hygiene & safety aspects in mind. When the entire world needs this change, we can understand the kind of business & career opportunity “Home textiles” can throw at us.

Gaps 

At one end I see businesses struggle & not sure about how to attract customers; a huge number of mills & vendors have open capacities with fewer orders in hand, similarly, on the career front plenty of people are looking for a job. But the number of freshers looking to shape their career in home textiles is negligible.

Whereas the home textile industry in India is unable to fulfill the growing needs of the market demand internationally as well as domestically. They are unable to get skilled candidates who can serve this segment better for overall as well as individual growth. Freshers are not realizing the potential growth possibilities.

To Summarize  

We all know what is meant by multitalented, and in the current competitive world, everyone has to be multitalented to sustain. If you are a retailer or mill or vendor, it’s time to focus more on offering solutions with product diversity. This may involve companies adapting and changing a product so that they can enter into a different market. They can consider Home textile as one segment to focus on in terms of product development, offering & fulfilling the business needs thereby achieve growth.

Above listed hubs show that people have the possibility of working across India starting from metros to popular towns. Be it experienced professionals or freshers; they can look for an opportunity in home textiles. While many companies in this sector are not getting the right candidates against their needs, on the other hand, a good amount of multi-talented people continuously look for suitable opportunities. 

Educational institutions should focus more on knowledge sharing related to Home textiles for students & make them aware of the opportunities. What they can get when they sharpen their skills in that segment by learning more about the products & doing an internship with this segment.

Let’s try & build the gap of demand vs supply in the home textile segment so that it can be a win-win situation for businesses, individuals, students & the country's business growth with healthy GDP.

Hope you like this article, do share your views & thoughts in the comments section so that we can have a healthy discussion to take things forward.  

RELATED TOPICS:#Apparel,Ramesh Gunasekaran