Walking down the streets of Chandni Chowk, it is impossible to get your eyes off the wide range of fabrics available. The historical bazaar Chandni Chowk traces its existence to the Mughal Era and exploring its winding narrow alleyways is simply captivating. Chandni Chowk till a decade ago was the biggest wholesale market of fabrics catering to almost all the big exporters, pan-India, but now the streets are no longer inviting as the exporters and international buyers and suppliers are moving closer to the hubs for growth.
Delhi’s oldest fabric hub Chandni Chowk, which has thrived on a wholesale distribution network business model has seen a number of players serving the exporters moving out and in the past 8-10 years a large chunk of the business, almost 80-90% has been diverted to new booming business centres in the vicinity of garmenting hubs like Okhla, Gurgaon, Noida, Faridabad which provide better connectivity and ease of access. “Most of the people sitting in Nehru Place today started their business in Chandni Chowk. The people who are still here are those who aren’t looking forward to expanding their business. And with the metro connectivity, this market has fast turned into a retail market,” avers Sharad, Proprietor, B.T. Fabric, who has been catering to the export market in grey fabrics since their establishment in 1981.
Indeed, the bad infrastructure, connectivity problems and the laid back attitude of the suppliers has kept many exporters away from the market, though the variety of grey is still among the best on offer. Due to the gradual drift of grey fabric traders from Chandni Chowk, the potential of business for the export market is very limited. “Export is fading because no buyer likes to come here, even the merchandisers avoid coming here because of congestion, mismanaged traffic and the poor parking facilities,” adds Sharad.
Besides all these problems, the biggest challenge faced by the fabric suppliers is catering to export orders. Presently, the economic conditions worldwide are a deterrent which is having immense effect on the export business. Therefore, fabric vendors are trying to move nearer to the exporters to cater to their needs faster and in a more responsive manner. Satish Kumar Shorewala, Owner, R.K. & Company, a velvet manufacturer and dealer explains, “Export is buyer-demand oriented market. Though in export, we receive bulk orders, but in domestic the orders come all round the year. Therefore, when America and Europe – the biggest export clients – have taken a back seat, the vendors need to move to nearer areas to be available to the exporters. Domestic is a fashion-driven market, and according to the forecast, velvets are going to be in fashion for the next couple of years, so domestic definitely is a blooming market.”
Another problem working with exporters is the growing prevalence of nominated suppliers. “Nowadays, mills are going directly to the buyer, trying to get direct nominations, but as a fabric sourcing agent we would like our clients to do business through us, but sitting here in Chandni Chowk makes it a herculean task for us. Therefore, we are planning to shift our office to Faridabad, thereby making us easily accessible to the buyer,” avers H.P. Aggarwal, Owner of Paras Cotswin, a fabric sourcing company catering to more than 25 export units all over India providing grey as well as processed fabrics.
While Chandni Chowk as a platform for exporters is on the back foot, but the domestic market seems to be flourishing here. “Earlier we used to cater to only exporters because the domestic market didn’t have that much scope, but for the past 5 years since we started domestic marketing, it has become even bigger than the export market,” says Arun Sahni, Director of Tulsiram Jugal Kishore, a 100 years old company supplying all sorts of cotton fabrics ranging from 10-100 count.
Presently the ratio of business between working with exporters to domestic players is roughly 60%:40%, with 40% being the domestic market, but domestic market is emerging as the frontrunner. Though the grey fabric vendors are moving slowly into the domestic market, but the voluminous quantity of orders they avail through export market is incomparable. For expanding more in business the fabric vendors need to move closer to the exporters unless, surviving in the grey fabric industry becomes difficult.
Dealers of grey, yarn dyed and dyed cotton fabrics
Shreshth of Kailash Brothers, another major manufacturer of velvets added, “In the present situation the export market is struggling to hold on and is losing ground very fast, but on the other side the future of domestic market seems to be very bright seeing its exponential growth for the past few years. We have an office and showroom in Okhla and have been catering to the home segment in the export market, since 25 years. So, for us having an office in both areas has been a winning combination. While the Chandni Chowk office helps us in penetrating the domestic market, the Okhla office caters to the export market.”
All the fabric suppliers agree that the domestic market is hugely impacted by seasonal sales. August onwards is the Eid season, so shimmery and shiny satin type of fabric will be in vogue; in the marriage season, sarees and suits get the attention. Now if they want to sell these fabrics in export market, nobody is going to buy it as the requirements of domestic and export market are diverse from the quality of fabric to the design requirements. Surprisingly, though India produces the finest of cotton fabrics, but presently the domestic market is majorly concentrating on polyester or cotton polyester blends.
[bleft]Export is fading from Chandni Chowk because no buyer likes to come here; even the merchandisers avoid coming here because of congestion, mismanaged traffic and the poor parking facilities. But on the other side, the future of domestic market seems to be very bright seeing its exponential growth for the past few years.[/bleft]
Entirely based on garmenting, the fabric for the domestic market majorly consists of men’s/women’s shirts and trouser and customized boutique items, mostly requiring processed fabrics. At the moment, fabrics for products like trousers, shirts, cotton kurtis, sarees and suits are extensively in demand, for which the fabric vendors are getting sampling orders from the domestic market in bulk on a day-to-day basis. Becoming a year round business, with the flexibility of consuming all sorts of cheaper varieties of fabrics as well, the domestic business is therefore taking over the export market at a rapid pace.
The traders supplying grey fabrics to the exporters find it difficult to cater to the domestic market. “Value-added fabrics are the requirement of the exporters and that is what we stock, but the domestic market is retail oriented. Further, exporters have customized demands depending on what the importer needs. Fundamentally, domestic needs are basic fabrics and for exports it is more specifications in terms of counts, weaves, weights, blends, etc.,” concludes Nishant Aggarwal, H.P. Aggarwal’s son and Proprietor, Paras Cotswin.
