The commission is expecting Rs 3,000 crore turnover in financial year 2017-18.In a renewed bid to Make khadi popular, Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) is joining hands with leading apparel companies like Arvind, Raymond and Aditya Birla Fashion Retail (ABFR). These companies will procure khadi from KVIC and will make and launch designer apparels with khadi mark.
“We are joining hands with the leading apparel brands to promote and increase the sell of khadi. KVIC has signed agreement with Arvind, Raymond and ABFR. We will supply khadi to these companies and they will design and sell it in their outlets across India,” said V K Saxena of KVIC.
According to KVIC, there are some khadi institutions which do not have enough works to do. These kind of agreements will increase their income as well as artisans income. Raymond has already placed order of Rs 5 crore. ABFR has visited some khadi institutions to collect samples of the fabric.
Saxena added, “Involvement of corporates in khadi industry shell help the artisans to generate more income. This will increase the demand of khadi and khadi institutions will get more orders.”
The commission is expecting Rs 3,000 crore turnover in financial year 2017-18. It was about Rs 2,005 crore in 2016-17. The KVIC is targeting Rs 5,000 crore turnover by end of 2020.
Raymond is planing to launch khadi products in October this year. Initially, it will launch in India only and from next year the Raymond khadi garments will be launched in overseas market.
Gaurav Mahajan, president of apparel business at Raymond said, “We are planning to launch our khadi cloths under the brand name of Raymond Ready to Wear in October this year. We hope to do a business of Rs 60-70 crore from khadi this year.”
The company would be sourcing around 400,000 metres of khadi from khadi institutions and it is expected to create three million man hours of employment for khadi weavers. Similarly, ABFR also planning to introduce khadi cloths under Peter England brand by end of this year.
It is mandatory to have khadi mark to sell khadi products. KVIC has served notice to Fabindia for selling ready-made cotton garment as khadi products without appropriate approvals in February this year.
The commission also asked Arvind not to sell khadi products without KVIC permission. The company had done fresh application to get the Mark which was accepted by the KVIC recently.
[“Source-financialexpress”]