India’s textile and apparel industry has few companies which are purely into sustainable products, and one of them is Ahmedabad-based Aura Herbal. Known for its herbal dyes, the company is strongly into exports in overseas as well as in Indian market and is satisfied with its growth in both the markets. In an email interview with Apparel Resources, Arun Baid, Co-Founder of the company shared his company’s strengths and upcoming developments.
More than 16 years ago in 2001, having an experience of recycling the chemical waste from textiles was an eye opener for the Baid couple which pushed them to go in the direction of finding a solution for dyeing instead of using hazardous 8,000+chemicals. This was quite challenging but they kept motivating themselves which finally turned out to be a good sustainable business. Now the company has a capacity of nearly 2,000 metres of fabric per day and100 kg of yarn per day in dyeing and printing. Out of these, 50 per cent is being exported to mainly organic cotton-based brands in countries like US, Australia, Canada, Germany and UK while the rest 50 per cent is supplied to the domestic market or merchant export. Though the company’s forte is into fabrics, it also offers made-ups, innerwear and babywear for specific customized orders, being on the expected lines of the market. Arun even foresees more growth happening in innerwear and babywear in near future.
As demand and awareness towards eco-friendly garments is increasing, overall challenges are also growing in national as well international scenarios. Arun looks at this issue with a different perspective. He believes that if competition increases in the segment that he is dealing in, it will really benefit his organization and the entire niche segment. “Frankly there is good amount of demand in the market for the kind of products we do, but to find an integrated set-up would be the key. We actually need competition in the field of herbal dyes to create more business and awareness,” says Arun. He is working rigorously in this direction as his organization is now coming up with herbal dyes. He is even sharing this technique with other producers by various means. Already having herbal dye patent in India and US, the company has now introduced more development in this domain for use in printing and yarn dye. It is also planning to invest in solar plant to become more sustainable and cost-effective.
To make the colours bright and fast, the company uses natural mordants such as myrobalan, rhubarb leaves, oils, minerals, alum etc. However, it does not use heavy metal mordants like copper, chrome and zinc. Some of the main herbs it uses are haritaki, turmeric, indigo, pomegranate, onion and madder.
GOTS certified Aura Herbal Textiles is also having certification and follows standards like One Cart, recycling, minimum or nil carbon footprint and TGPI- The Green People of India.
Despite these developments and a strong client base, Arun believes that the biggest obstacle in his business is the lack of awareness, and to tackle this issue, they are trying to conduct workshops, and also partner with the like-minded companies to spread the same.
