Fabindia
Encyclopedia
Fabindia is an India
n chain store
retailing garments, furnishings, fabrics and ethnic products handmade
by craftspeople across rural India. Established in 1960 by John Bissell, an American working for the Ford Foundation
, New Delhi, Fabindia started out exporting home furnishings, before stepping into domestic retail in 1976, when it opened its first Fabindia retail store in Greater Kailash
, New Delhi. Today it has over 135 stores across India and abroad, and is managed by his son, William Bissell.
In 2008, Fabindia had a revenue of $65 million, marking an increase of 30% from the previous year. Fabindia sources its product from across India through 17 community-owned-companies; a certain percentage of the shares of which are held by artisans and craftpersons.
The products of Fabindia are mainly sourced from villages helping to provide and sustain rural employment in India. They are currently produced by over 40,000 artisans and craftspeople across India. The hand-crafted products also encourage good craftsmanship.
. He used his recently deceased grandmother's $20,000 legacy as start-up capital. Originally from Hartford, Connecticut, where his grandfather was the president of the Hartford Fire & Life Insurance Company, Bissell, was previously working as a buyer for Macy's
, New York left his position and came to India in 1958, as a consultant for the Ford Foundation
to advise the Government of India run Central Cottage Industries Corporation. He was given a two-year grant to instruct Indian villagers in making goods for export. He firmly believed in the emerging Indian textile industry and was determined to showcase Indian handloom textiles with a way to provide employment to traditional artisans. In 1964, Bissel met British designer Terence Conran
, whose newly established home furnishing retail company Habitat
, soon became one of their biggest customers. Meanwhile it also established a distribution network in the U.S., supplying their products to mom-and-pop stores. Through early years Bissell travelled across craft-based villages and town meeting weavers and entrepreneurs, swatches who would produce flat weaves, pale colors and precise weights in handloom yardage, in the end he homed in on one supplier, A. S. Khera, a dhurrie and home furnishing manufacturer in Panipat
, thus by 1965 it had a turnover of Rs. 20 lakhs, though for the first time it moved into a proper office.
The year 1976, saw major equity restructuring within the company, as adhering to Reserve Bank of India
's rules instructing foreign companies to limit their foreign equity to 40 percent, Fabindia offered its shares to close family members, associates, and suppliers like Madhukar Khera, an early supplier to the company. This was also the height of the Indian Emergency period(1975-1976), and the rule which barred commercial establishments to run from residential properties was implemented, the company were forced out of its second premises, a house on the Mathura Road. This prompted it to open the first Fabindia retail store in Greater Kailash
, N-Block market in New Delhi
, in 1976, which remains its register office.
Now catering to the urban India as well, in the coming decade Fabindia differentiated itself from other government-owned and often subsidized players, in handloom fabrics and apparel sector, like KVIC and various state emporiums by adapting its fabrics and designs to urban taste. For this designers were accessed to modernize its line of home linens and most importantly introduced a range of ready-to-wear garments, including churidar
-kurta
suits for women, men's shirts etc. Even today, its team of designers provide most of the designs and colors, executed by village-based artisans. At the other end, these artisans learnt the basics of quality, consistency and finish, for instance avoiding frayed edges on handwoven shawls. The result was that traditional apparel and products became mainstream, and fashionable, fast adapted by a growing middle-class and became identified as the brand for the elite and intellectual as well as affordable ethnic chic.
Fabindia lost its biggest customer Habitat in 1992, when the latter was bought by Ikea
, which then decided to appoint its own buying agent
in India; in the following year John Bissell suffered a stroke, and his son William, gradually stepped into the helm of affairs, taking over completely after the death of father in 1998, at age 66. Till then William, an undergrad from Wesleyan University
, who had majored in philosophy, political science and government, had spent several years in Jodhpur
, since completing his education in 1988. William, working with rural artisans and crafts co-operatives across Rajasthan, was instrumental in the setting up of various weavers' cooperatives. One of first tasks taken up by William was shifting Fabindia's focus to the domestic market, enroute to becoming a retail chain, for till then it only had two stores in Delhi. In time Fabindia’s retail business overtook its exports.
Over the next two decades Fabindia, emerged as a successful retail business in India, with 111 retail outlets within the country and 6 abroad. Fabindia added its non-textile range in 2000, organic foods in 2004, followed by personal care products in 2006, finally it launched its range of Handcrafted jewellery in 2008. Fabindia sells a variety of products ranging from textiles, garments, stationery, furniture, home accessories, ceramics, organic foods, and bodycare products, besides exporting home furnishings. Fabindia's retail expansion plans started taking shape 2004 onwards, it opened multiple and larger stores in metros like Mumbai, Chennai and Delhi, while at the same time spreading out beyond metros. It opened stores in cities like Vadodara, Dehradun, Coimbatore and Bhubaneswar, Durgapur soon as revenues also grew from Rs 89 crore in 2004-05 to Rs 129 crore in 2005-06, reaching Rs 200 crore in 2007, in the year when it sourced its products from 22,000 artisans in 21 states.
Usually, the village-based artisan gets barely 5% of the tag price of their products as the rest is taken away by the middlemen. To counter this, Fabindia introduced an artisan-shareholder system through "supply-region companies" incorporated as subsidiaries. Here the craftspeople collectively own 26% of the equity in each company, based in nationwide centres, with Artisans Micro Finance, a Fabindia arm holding 49%, and employees and other private investors holding the balance. Also as part its expansion plans, 6% in Fabindia was sold in 2007, at an estimated $11 million, to Wolfensohn Capital Partners, a private equity firm founded by former World Bank
president James Wolfensohn
. In 2009, it acquired a 25% stake in UK based £ 30 million ethnic womenswear retailer, EAST. Today the company has retail outlets in all major cities of India - 137 at last count - in addition to international stores in Dubai
, UAE; 3 stores in Bahrain
; Doha
, State of Qatar
; Rome
, Italy
and one in Guangzhou
, China.
, in Pali district
of Rajasthan, today it is co-educational, senior secondary school with 600 students including 40% girls. The school subsidized tuition fees of the girl students and offers them scholarships, in partnership with "The John Bissell Scholars Fund", established in 2000.
. In 2004, Fabindia was featured as part of a CNBC
special TV report on India. Fabindia brand does not advertise, and largely works through word of mouth
publicity, then in 2007 the craft-conscious enterprise concept of Fabindia became a Harvard Business School
(HBS) case study
. 2010 marked 50 years of the foundation of Fabindia, and release of the book, The Fabric of Our Lives: The Story of Fabindia, by Radhika Singh.
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
n chain store
Chain store
Chain stores are retail outlets that share a brand and central management, and usually have standardized business methods and practices. These characteristics also apply to chain restaurants and some service-oriented chain businesses. In retail, dining and many service categories, chain businesses...
retailing garments, furnishings, fabrics and ethnic products handmade
Handmade
Handmade may refer to:* Handmade , 2003* Handmade , 2010* HandMade Films, George Harrison's production company* Rhino Handmade, a record label-See also:...
by craftspeople across rural India. Established in 1960 by John Bissell, an American working for the Ford Foundation
Ford Foundation
The Ford Foundation is a private foundation incorporated in Michigan and based in New York City created to fund programs that were chartered in 1936 by Edsel Ford and Henry Ford....
, New Delhi, Fabindia started out exporting home furnishings, before stepping into domestic retail in 1976, when it opened its first Fabindia retail store in Greater Kailash
Greater Kailash
Greater Kailash is a residential area in South Delhi, consisting of several residential colonies and multiple markets. The real estate prices are comparatively high.-Geography:...
, New Delhi. Today it has over 135 stores across India and abroad, and is managed by his son, William Bissell.
In 2008, Fabindia had a revenue of $65 million, marking an increase of 30% from the previous year. Fabindia sources its product from across India through 17 community-owned-companies; a certain percentage of the shares of which are held by artisans and craftpersons.
The products of Fabindia are mainly sourced from villages helping to provide and sustain rural employment in India. They are currently produced by over 40,000 artisans and craftspeople across India. The hand-crafted products also encourage good craftsmanship.
History
Fabindia was first started as a one-man export company of home furnishings, by John Bissell in 1960, in the two small rooms adjoining his bedroom in his Golf Links flat, as "Fabindia Inc.", as it was incorporated in Canton, ConnecticutCanton, Connecticut
Canton is a rural town, incorporated in 1806, in Hartford County, Connecticut. The population was 8,840 at the 2000 census, and has grown to 10,292 as of the 2010 census. It is bordered by Granby on the north, Simsbury on the east, Avon and Burlington on the south, New Hartford on the west, and...
. He used his recently deceased grandmother's $20,000 legacy as start-up capital. Originally from Hartford, Connecticut, where his grandfather was the president of the Hartford Fire & Life Insurance Company, Bissell, was previously working as a buyer for Macy's
Macy's
Macy's is a U.S. chain of mid-to-high range department stores. In addition to its flagship Herald Square location in New York City, the company operates over 800 stores in the United States...
, New York left his position and came to India in 1958, as a consultant for the Ford Foundation
Ford Foundation
The Ford Foundation is a private foundation incorporated in Michigan and based in New York City created to fund programs that were chartered in 1936 by Edsel Ford and Henry Ford....
to advise the Government of India run Central Cottage Industries Corporation. He was given a two-year grant to instruct Indian villagers in making goods for export. He firmly believed in the emerging Indian textile industry and was determined to showcase Indian handloom textiles with a way to provide employment to traditional artisans. In 1964, Bissel met British designer Terence Conran
Terence Conran
Sir Terence Orby Conran, FCSD, is an English designer, restaurateur, retailer and writer.-Early life and education:Terence Conran was born in Kingston upon Thames, the son of Christina Mabel and South African-born Gerard Rupert Conran, a businessman who owned a rubber importation company in East...
, whose newly established home furnishing retail company Habitat
Habitat (retailer)
Habitat Retail Ltd. is a retailer of household furnishings in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Spain, and has franchised outlets in other countries. Founded in 1964 by Terence Conran, it was sold by the IKANO Group, owned by the Kamprad family, in December 2009 to Hilco, a restructuring...
, soon became one of their biggest customers. Meanwhile it also established a distribution network in the U.S., supplying their products to mom-and-pop stores. Through early years Bissell travelled across craft-based villages and town meeting weavers and entrepreneurs, swatches who would produce flat weaves, pale colors and precise weights in handloom yardage, in the end he homed in on one supplier, A. S. Khera, a dhurrie and home furnishing manufacturer in Panipat
Panipat
Panipat بَنِبَت is an ancient and historic city in Panipat district, Haryana state, India. It is 90 km north from Delhi and 169 km south of Chandigarh on NH-1. The three battles fought at the city were turning points in Indian history. The city is famous in India by the name of "City of...
, thus by 1965 it had a turnover of Rs. 20 lakhs, though for the first time it moved into a proper office.
The year 1976, saw major equity restructuring within the company, as adhering to Reserve Bank of India
Reserve Bank of India
The Reserve Bank of India is the central banking institution of India and controls the monetary policy of the rupee as well as US$300.21 billion of currency reserves. The institution was established on 1 April 1935 during the British Raj in accordance with the provisions of the Reserve Bank of...
's rules instructing foreign companies to limit their foreign equity to 40 percent, Fabindia offered its shares to close family members, associates, and suppliers like Madhukar Khera, an early supplier to the company. This was also the height of the Indian Emergency period(1975-1976), and the rule which barred commercial establishments to run from residential properties was implemented, the company were forced out of its second premises, a house on the Mathura Road. This prompted it to open the first Fabindia retail store in Greater Kailash
Greater Kailash
Greater Kailash is a residential area in South Delhi, consisting of several residential colonies and multiple markets. The real estate prices are comparatively high.-Geography:...
, N-Block market in New Delhi
New Delhi
New Delhi is the capital city of India. It serves as the centre of the Government of India and the Government of the National Capital Territory of Delhi. New Delhi is situated within the metropolis of Delhi. It is one of the nine districts of Delhi Union Territory. The total area of the city is...
, in 1976, which remains its register office.
Now catering to the urban India as well, in the coming decade Fabindia differentiated itself from other government-owned and often subsidized players, in handloom fabrics and apparel sector, like KVIC and various state emporiums by adapting its fabrics and designs to urban taste. For this designers were accessed to modernize its line of home linens and most importantly introduced a range of ready-to-wear garments, including churidar
Churidar
Churidars , or more properly churidar pyjamas , are tightly fitting trousers worn by both men and women in South Asia and Central Asia. Churidars are a variant of the common salwar pants. Salwars are cut wide at the top and narrow at the ankle. Churidars narrow more quickly, so that contours of the...
-kurta
Kurta
A kurta is a traditional item of clothing worn in Afghanistan, Pakistan , Nepal, India, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka. It is a loose shirt falling either just above or somewhere below the knees of the wearer, and is worn by both men and women...
suits for women, men's shirts etc. Even today, its team of designers provide most of the designs and colors, executed by village-based artisans. At the other end, these artisans learnt the basics of quality, consistency and finish, for instance avoiding frayed edges on handwoven shawls. The result was that traditional apparel and products became mainstream, and fashionable, fast adapted by a growing middle-class and became identified as the brand for the elite and intellectual as well as affordable ethnic chic.
Fabindia lost its biggest customer Habitat in 1992, when the latter was bought by Ikea
IKEA
IKEA is a privately held, international home products company that designs and sells ready-to-assemble furniture such as beds and desks, appliances and home accessories. The company is the world's largest furniture retailer...
, which then decided to appoint its own buying agent
Buying agent
Buying agents is a term used in the UK to describe people acting as agents on behalf of a buyer and not the seller, as do traditional Estate agents whose job is to obtain the maximum price for a property for the seller...
in India; in the following year John Bissell suffered a stroke, and his son William, gradually stepped into the helm of affairs, taking over completely after the death of father in 1998, at age 66. Till then William, an undergrad from Wesleyan University
Wesleyan University
Wesleyan University is a private liberal arts college founded in 1831 and located in Middletown, Connecticut. According to the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, Wesleyan is the only Baccalaureate College in the nation that emphasizes undergraduate instruction in the arts and...
, who had majored in philosophy, political science and government, had spent several years in Jodhpur
Jodhpur
Jodhpur , is the second largest city in the Indian state of Rajasthan. It is located west from the state capital, Jaipur and from the city of Ajmer. It was formerly the seat of a princely state of the same name, the capital of the kingdom known as Marwar...
, since completing his education in 1988. William, working with rural artisans and crafts co-operatives across Rajasthan, was instrumental in the setting up of various weavers' cooperatives. One of first tasks taken up by William was shifting Fabindia's focus to the domestic market, enroute to becoming a retail chain, for till then it only had two stores in Delhi. In time Fabindia’s retail business overtook its exports.
Over the next two decades Fabindia, emerged as a successful retail business in India, with 111 retail outlets within the country and 6 abroad. Fabindia added its non-textile range in 2000, organic foods in 2004, followed by personal care products in 2006, finally it launched its range of Handcrafted jewellery in 2008. Fabindia sells a variety of products ranging from textiles, garments, stationery, furniture, home accessories, ceramics, organic foods, and bodycare products, besides exporting home furnishings. Fabindia's retail expansion plans started taking shape 2004 onwards, it opened multiple and larger stores in metros like Mumbai, Chennai and Delhi, while at the same time spreading out beyond metros. It opened stores in cities like Vadodara, Dehradun, Coimbatore and Bhubaneswar, Durgapur soon as revenues also grew from Rs 89 crore in 2004-05 to Rs 129 crore in 2005-06, reaching Rs 200 crore in 2007, in the year when it sourced its products from 22,000 artisans in 21 states.
Usually, the village-based artisan gets barely 5% of the tag price of their products as the rest is taken away by the middlemen. To counter this, Fabindia introduced an artisan-shareholder system through "supply-region companies" incorporated as subsidiaries. Here the craftspeople collectively own 26% of the equity in each company, based in nationwide centres, with Artisans Micro Finance, a Fabindia arm holding 49%, and employees and other private investors holding the balance. Also as part its expansion plans, 6% in Fabindia was sold in 2007, at an estimated $11 million, to Wolfensohn Capital Partners, a private equity firm founded by former World Bank
World Bank
The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans to developing countries for capital programmes.The World Bank's official goal is the reduction of poverty...
president James Wolfensohn
James Wolfensohn
Sir James David Wolfensohn AO KBE FKC was the ninth president of the World Bank Group.-Early life:James Wolfensohn was born in Sydney, Australia, on 1 December 1933...
. In 2009, it acquired a 25% stake in UK based £ 30 million ethnic womenswear retailer, EAST. Today the company has retail outlets in all major cities of India - 137 at last count - in addition to international stores in Dubai
Dubai
Dubai is a city and emirate in the United Arab Emirates . The emirate is located south of the Persian Gulf on the Arabian Peninsula and has the largest population with the second-largest land territory by area of all the emirates, after Abu Dhabi...
, UAE; 3 stores in Bahrain
Bahrain
' , officially the Kingdom of Bahrain , is a small island state near the western shores of the Persian Gulf. It is ruled by the Al Khalifa royal family. The population in 2010 stood at 1,214,705, including 235,108 non-nationals. Formerly an emirate, Bahrain was declared a kingdom in 2002.Bahrain is...
; Doha
Doha
Doha is the capital city of the state of Qatar. Located on the Persian Gulf, it had a population of 998,651 in 2008, and is also one of the municipalities of Qatar...
, State of Qatar
Qatar
Qatar , also known as the State of Qatar or locally Dawlat Qaṭar, is a sovereign Arab state, located in the Middle East, occupying the small Qatar Peninsula on the northeasterly coast of the much larger Arabian Peninsula. Its sole land border is with Saudi Arabia to the south, with the rest of its...
; Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
and one in Guangzhou
Guangzhou
Guangzhou , known historically as Canton or Kwangchow, is the capital and largest city of the Guangdong province in the People's Republic of China. Located in southern China on the Pearl River, about north-northwest of Hong Kong, Guangzhou is a key national transportation hub and trading port...
, China.
Philanthropy
William and John Bissell established "The Fabindia School" in 1992 in BaliBali, India
Bali is a city and a municipality in Pali district in the state of Rajasthan, India.The town is situated on the left bank of the Mithari river. This walled town was the headquarters of a district having the same name in the Jodhpur State. Bali is a tehsil and Panchayat Samiti with the same name...
, in Pali district
Pali district
Pali District is a district of the state of Rajasthan in western India. The town of Pali is the district headquarters.-History:...
of Rajasthan, today it is co-educational, senior secondary school with 600 students including 40% girls. The school subsidized tuition fees of the girl students and offers them scholarships, in partnership with "The John Bissell Scholars Fund", established in 2000.
Awards and recognition
Fabindia was awarded “Best Retail Brand” in 2004 by The Economic TimesThe Economic Times
The Economic Times is an English-language Indian daily newspaper published by the Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd.. The Economic Times was started in 1961. It is the most popular and widely read financial daily in India, read by more than 8 lakh people...
. In 2004, Fabindia was featured as part of a CNBC
CNBC
CNBC is a satellite and cable television business news channel in the U.S., owned and operated by NBCUniversal. The network and its international spinoffs cover business headlines and provide live coverage of financial markets. The combined reach of CNBC and its siblings is 390 million viewers...
special TV report on India. Fabindia brand does not advertise, and largely works through word of mouth
Word of mouth
Word of mouth, or viva voce, is the passing of information from person to person by oral communication. Storytelling is the oldest form of word-of-mouth communication where one person tells others of something, whether a real event or something made up. Oral tradition is cultural material and...
publicity, then in 2007 the craft-conscious enterprise concept of Fabindia became a Harvard Business School
Harvard Business School
Harvard Business School is the graduate business school of Harvard University in Boston, Massachusetts, United States and is widely recognized as one of the top business schools in the world. The school offers the world's largest full-time MBA program, doctoral programs, and many executive...
(HBS) case study
Case study
A case study is an intensive analysis of an individual unit stressing developmental factors in relation to context. The case study is common in social sciences and life sciences. Case studies may be descriptive or explanatory. The latter type is used to explore causation in order to find...
. 2010 marked 50 years of the foundation of Fabindia, and release of the book, The Fabric of Our Lives: The Story of Fabindia, by Radhika Singh.
Further reading
- The Fabric of Our Lives: The Story of Fabindia, by Radhika Singh. Penguin Books India. 2010. ISBN 9780670084340.
External links
- Fabindia - Official website
- http://specials.rediff.com/money/2008/jun/18sl1.htm Anjuli Bhargava, "The amazing success story of Fabindia", Rediff.comRediff.comRediff.com India is a news, information, entertainment, and shopping portal. It was founded in 1996 as "Rediff On The NeT" and is headquartered in Mumbai, India with offices in New Delhi and New York City, USA....
, June 18, 2008].