Just a mile away from the Aura Herbal Textiles factory at Lambha near Ahmedabad, ask for Arun Baid and his wife Sonal or their business, and you get blank stares. But Berlin-based Enrico Rima, co-promoter of Germany's Lebenskleidung, which deals in natural textiles, has no trouble in locating the factory, 20 km outside the city. Nor do fabric merchants and designers in the United States, Europe, Japan and Australia.
Main markets:
US, Europe, Japan and Australia
Differentiator: Patented herbal dyeing process certified by Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS)
Customers: 500, talking to a US fashion brand for co-branding
Business: Making fabrics, yarns and textiles using a herbal dyeing process where no chemicals are used at any stage
First order: In 2004
Total income: $900,000 in 2009-10 |
That is because Arun, 44, and his wife have pioneered the large-scale manufacture of textiles using natural dyes and a chemical-free process. Today, everybody seems to want organic textiles, but the Baids' first business was in something that no one wanted: waste. In 2003, Arun had a waste recycling business, and he saw the environmental damage being done by the textiles industry.
"Recycling waste had no end," says Arun. They began experimenting with plant-based dyes, but faced a challenge. The usual process could handle just about three metres of fabric a day. Aura then came up with a mass-production process that could handle over 5,000 metres a day. "We wanted to make a mainstream product and not a decoration," says Sonal, 38, a director.
It has not been an easy journey, since there was no awareness of herbal dyeing. Things are changing now, but the market shift is happening mostly in developed markets because India is still price-sensitive.
Sonal says the challenge was not in getting customers abroad. "The integrity of the product had to be proven," she says. To do this, Aura secured a US patent in 2009 for its process. In 2009-10, Aura set out to expand capacity with a Rs 2.4 crore investment from Gujarat Biotech Venture Fund. It is now thinking of building its own brand. "Capacity is no more a constraint," says Sonal.
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Rajiv Bhuva
