The Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) has tied up with retailer Apna Bazar for setting up a “Khadi Korner” at Charkop and Mulund in Mumbai ‘s suburbs with the middle class as the target group that has the highest footfall in this superstore. KVIC had their first similar tie-up with Globus last month as part of their ongoing efforts of a “shop-in-shop” creation for increasing Khadi sales.
A ‘Memorandum of Understanding’ was signed by representatives of Apna Bazar and KVIC in the presence of KVIC Chairman Vinai Kumar Saxena , and Apna Bazar’s Anil Ganger (Chairman) and S T Kajale (CEO). This tie-up is expected to generate tremendous impact in escalating khadi sales through Apna Bazar, which has seven distributors, 16 supermarkets, one wholesale unit and nine franchise outlets in Mumbai, said Apna Bazar’s Kajale.
“Our focus is to establish ‘Khadi Korners’ in major retail showrooms and malls like Shoppers Stop, Star Bazar, Infinity Mall, Big Bazaar and D-Mart, Pantaloons etc. We had excellent, high-level interaction in this regard with CEOs of major retail chains recently,” KVIC Chairman Vinai Kumar Saxena said, adding that Cotton Bazar, Future Group have confirmed about signing MOUs with KVIC in this regard, while KVIC has been experiencing sales growth of 5% to 6% following such MOUs.
“Our sales were Rs 2007 crores last year and we are expecting sales of around Rs 3,000 crore this year,” he said while pooh-poohing the +myth+ that khadi is costly. “Since KVIC needs to be competitive in quality and rates to survive, our margins are responsible for our sales growth where we are getting orders even through winning tenders in competitive bidding. We witnessed 30% to 40% sales in Noida (Delhi) itself – which shows khadi’s acceptability — and are expecting the same figure nationally, as khadi prices of between Rs 50 to Rs 3,000 per square metre fits all buyers’ pockets,” he reiterated, while adding that even hotel chains are evincing interest in showcasing khadi products.
“The well-known global brand Levis jeans is making khadi jeans from material supplied by us– through Arvind Mills — with whom we have tied up for supply of khadi denim. We have numerous qualities of khadi denim which we are producing at the rate of one million metres per year and which we also supply to foreign brands,” he said, adding that KVIC is a facilitator with 2300 institutions for producing khadi.
“While Delhi police is using KVIC’s khadi for their uniforms, we are also in talks with the defence authorities about supplying khadi for India’s military personnel,” Saxena said, while pointing out that KVIC had identified 400 villages in India for producing khadi products under its “Khadi Vibrant” programme.
