Chamba hosiery products find place in leading brand stores

Entrepreneur from Dalhouise turns challenges into opportunities

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‘Was not easy to find market’

The biggest challenge was to find a market. Out marketing team visited 150 stores in Punjab, Haryana and Jammu and Kashmir before a retailer brought first three pieces created at out knitting unit. Now, we are vendors for Fabindia and many other leading retail stores of the country. Most of the products created by us are in demand and there is advance booking for these. — Gaurav Khanna,entrepreneur

Lalit Mohan

Tribune News Service

Chamba, January 17

An entrepreneur from Chamba district has shown that difficult area and circumstances cannot be a roadblock to success. Gaurav Khanna has set up hosiery and knitting unit in a remote area located 10 km from Dalhouise. The woollens being produced at the unit find place in leading brand stores such as Fabindia and also exported to the US and Canada.

Gaurav Khanna, the owner of Lall Ji Knitwares, said his father was a cloth merchant in Dalhouise. “Till 1997, we were selling school uniforms at various schools of the region. I completed my MBA in 1998 and joined my father’s business. I found that we were not selling items at our shop that were in demand. People came to our shop and demanded capes, ponchos and other woollen products”, he said.

He said, he bought a land in a remote village on the Dalhouise-Chamba road and started a knitting unit. The first piece that he created at the unit was 1.5 kg heavy. He said further that it took him two years of learning to create the right product. “The biggest challenge was to find a market. Out marketing team visited 150 stores in Punjab, Haryana and Jammu and Kashmir before a retailer brought first three pieces created at out knitting unit. Now, we are vendors for Fabindia and many other leading retail stores of the country. Most of the products created by us are in demand and there is advance booking for these”, Gaurav claimed.

Gaurav said he imported yarn and wool from China, Italy and Australia. “Occasions” and “Havick” from Scotland are two major brands created by Lall Ji Knitwares. The finished products besides being sold in India are also exported to the US and Canada, he said.

The unit is producing about 30,000 woollen pieces in a year and employs about 50 local persons.

Gaurav said he intended to expand his unit but the plans had been halted due to the Covid pandemic this year. “However, the pandemic has also brought a positive development. Many artisans working in the hosiery industry in Ludhiana are from Himachal and do not intend to go back. We are getting calls from skilled labour for employment”, he said.

When asked as to why he did not use the wool produced in Himachal, Gaurav said the wool sold in Himachal was not washed and contained grease which made it difficult to be used in Hosiery. In case, the Wool Federation of Himachal installed a machinery for cleaning grease or fat from the wool produced here it could fetch much better prices for shepherds, he said.

Gaurav said the government needed to encourage local entrepreneurship within the state.