By: Anirvan Ghosh and Chandra Ranganathan
The Kancheepuram saree cluster has
weathered cost pressures and shortage of weavers to stand tall in the economic
downturn
Going around the town of Kancheepuram-the onetime capital of
the Pallavas-one can see magnificent temples like the Kamakshi Amman, which
rivals the best of Madurai's temple architecture and is associated with the
Aadi Sankaracharya of the 1st millennium CE. Over hundreds of years, the Gods
have presided over saree creations no less splendid. Kancheepuram accounts for
around Rs.200 crore worth of silk saree business in the country, and is by far
the largest such cluster in India. The town is dotted with silk shops belonging
to the 75 weaver's cooperatives or private players like Nalli, Kumaran and
RMKV. The cooperatives provide the silk yarn and zari to the weavers, who then
turn them into exquisite creations. Private players have contract looms too.
Times have usually been good for the saree cluster here as their produce has
always been in high demand. But has the economic downturn has taken away any of
its sheen? No at all, asserts MS Manoharan. "Demand has been robust,
whatever happens in the rest of the economy," says Manoharan, whose
company SM Silk is one of the leading private players in the cluster, with
sales of Rs.40 crore annually. Travel down Gandhi Road and all you see in every
direction is silk, silk and more silk. It may be hard to accept that people are
still spending on expensive sarees, but Manoharan says that they indeed are. He
also points out the varieties that are now on offer to entice younger buyers
who once considered the traditional, heavy sarees as unfashionable. At Prakash
Silks, owner KN Ishwar Shah explains why that's happening. His team of weavers
churns out not just lighter sarees but also improvises on conventional designs,
so new funkier brocades now adorn the silk. The borders today are almost half
of what they normally used to be, come with a spattering of bright colours like
blue, pink, red and velvet, minus the traditional motifs.
Such designs use less zari-a thread made of gold or silver
to create intricate patterns-thereby saving costs, and offering margins that
are much higher than the usual 18-22%. Margins are up also due to the use of
copper in the zari. A traditional zari consists of 0.6% gold and 57% silver,
with the rest as silk yarn, informs M Palanisamy, MD of Tamil Nadu Zari Ltd.
While 75% of zari comes from Gujarat where it's a cottage industry, the rest
comes from the government-owned Tamil Nadu Zari, which is one of its kind in
the country. The silk is mostly sourced from Karnataka, which produces 60-70%
of the country's requirement according to an official of the Central Silk
Board. There are others who are using a higher percentage of silver. For
example, Nalli Silks that does about Rs.450 crores of turnover incorporates a
60% silver content in its sarees, says Nalli Kuppuswamy Chetty whose family
founded the brand in Chennai: "The zari proportion for us is 60% silver,
0.5% gold, 23.5% silk and the rest would be other chemicals." And with
prices from Rs.6, 000 to Rs.99, 000, demand for its sarees is still strong,
claims Chetty.
While smarter blends in the zari are helping producers trim costs, there's a
risk to this as fakes abound. "Customers can never tell the difference,
and fraudsters are at bay to a large extent," says Palanisamy. This
prompted the government to install XRF Analyser machines where anyone can get
the silver and gold content of a saree analysed. A single machine costs around
Rs.19 lakh and there are only two of them in the city. This has helped preserve
authenticity of the Kancheepuram saree, which was registered three years ago
under the Geographical Indication (GI) Act. The GI status means that any saree
sold as a Kancheepuram saree should follow the prescribed weight, quality and
zari norms and should be woven in that district only. Anyone selling fakes can
be booked under the Act.
On the design front, both private players and handloom cooperatives are
enlisting the expertise of the National Institute of Design (NID) Ahmedabad,
and National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT) Chennai, to churn out
designs that would appeal to young, affluent consumers.
Arignar Anna Silk Handloom Cooperative with about Rs.30 crore sales last year,
prices its sarees the same irrespective of whether they are sold within or
outside. Kancheepuram. R. Tamilarasi, joint director, handlooms and textiles,
says that while this impacts profitability it brings in higher volumes to
offset this. "Traditional high-end sarees are still very much in demand
but for less formal occasions the fancier sarees are doing better," she
says. The fancier sarees are the new designs, of lesser weight and six yards
long, in comparison to the nine-yard saree that the bride wears in a
traditional wedding. The handloom organisations, depending on their size, have a reach
throughout their main customer base, which is Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, and Andhra
Pradesh.
