New Delhi, India, November 15--Cottage Industries Exposition’s (CIE) carpet of success was laid generations ago.
And for Rashid Mir, its chairman, he simply inherited his forefathers business of selling silk carpets, a thriving Rs 400 crore (Rs 4 billion) industry alone, according to Fibre2Floor.
Beginning modestly with one lakh rupees as capital, he said, "It must be two or three generations old," he says, while attempting to put the legacy into some kind of perspective.
For CIE, China is the silk source and hand weavers in Kashmir to make carpets. His buyers, both within and outside India, are those who see carpets as a piece of art and not just another household furnishing.
With steady rise in Indian carpet exports worth Rs 2,500 crore (Rs 25 billion), silk carpets constitutes 30 per cent of that. Carpet Export Promotion Council sources name Obeede in Mirzapur as another big player in the woollen carpet business, in India.
T S Chadda, executive director, CEPC says, "Obeede does not sell its woollen carpets in the domestic market. They supply in bulk to overseas retail outlets. Their annual export is in excess of Rs 100 crore (Rs 1 billion)."
At the heart of Mir's successful business is 1 lakh skilled weavers in Kashmir. Making carpets is a bit more complicated than weaving saris. "A good carpet takes anything between five months and five years to finish. Over 75 per cent of the carpet cost goes to the weaver and his family," Mir says.
CIE has made a mark in international markets with outlets in San Francisco, New York, Nairobi, Cape Town, Port Louis, Bangkok, Bali, Dubai, London and eight cities in India. All these are places that attract tourists in large numbers.
Prices of silk carpets may vary from Rs 10,000 to Rs 10 lakh (Rs 1 million). A CIE executive says there are even carpets worth a whopping Rs 1 crore. The selling is done through retail outlets spread across the world. CIE's network of 70 showrooms also includes 23 owned by it.
CIE's clientele has included the rich and famous from the world of business, politics and fine art. Henry Kissinger, Madeleine Albright and even Pope John Paul II own CIE silk carpets.
Today, despite the shift of customer base, CIE's turnover has grown 20 per cent year on year.
