The story of Pureweave, a Kashmiri manufacturer of fabrics, is as interesting as the story of its promoters. Syed Asma spends a day at the state-of-art ‘end-to-end’ manufacturing unit to understand how this small effort is first step towards a big change
Inside view of Pureweave factory at Rangreth Srinagar. KL Images: Durdana Bhat
‘Made in India’, ‘Made in China’, Indonesia and other places is a usual tag seen in the fabrics worn by women in Kashmir. What is novel and exciting in the market is a new tag that reads: Made in Kashmir (India).
The tag is introduced by a new brand, Pureweave, launched in Kashmir last year. It is not the only novel thing that makes it different, but Pureweave is the brand name of first and the only fabric that is completely manufactured in Kashmir. From spinning the yarn, dying, designing, stitching and branding, everything is done in Kashmir. Besides, it offers the first shopping online portal in Jammu and Kashmir. Though, it is exclusively meant for women.
Pureweave is an offshoot of Dr A M Mir’s Cashmere Marketing Industry and is run by his lone son Adil Mir. The 39-year-old entrepreneur is working hard to make the brand Pureweave a success in Kashmir and across India.
Cashmere Marketing Industry is one of the major raw material suppliers in Srinagar and in some parts of India. Dr Mir, a former MD of State Industries, after retirement took a leap, from being a bureaucrat he became a businessman. Having a good know-how of the fabric and raw material, Dr Mir started investing in the sector and became one of the leading raw material suppliers of India.
With an aspiration of expanding the existing business Dr Mir wanted Adil to go for textile engineering in Australia but he had his own plans. He went to Bangalore University and became an IT expert. After completing his bachelors’ in 1997 Adil, instead of joining his father’s venture, invested in IT business in Kashmir which did not fetch him much.
“In 1998, I started importing computer hardware but it did not work the way I expected,” says Adil. Later in the same year, he joined his father and being a tech savvy he designed an online portal namely ‘Cashmea’. “It was for the marketing of our products manufactured under the name Imexpashm,” says Adil.
Imexpashm manufactured scarves and stoles and had its offices in Srinagar and London, though it catered customers across world, mostly in West and in the Gulf countries.
Adil Mir at his office.
Surfing internet and checking websites was not a common practice in India as it is today so the effort was not appreciated the way Adil expected but he says the money and the experience did not go waste. The same was utilized after 16 years, in 2014, while designing the website for the newly introduced brand Pureweave.
The idea of selling the products online is new in Kashmir, Adil says it is cost effective and benefits the end users (customers). “I, rather than spending on showrooms, spent on advertisements, which increase the online sales. This practice helps me to work on minimal margin and benefit the customers.”
Though he has identified a few spots in Srinagar for the exclusive Pureweave collection but is not his priority as of now.
Being contended with his work Adil says, for a starter handling 50-60 orders a day across India is satisfactory.
Not knowing much about the response in India, Pureweave tag that reads: made in Kashmir (India), had generated a good response in Kashmir.
“It looks good when you see them [India] written in a bracket,” winks a customer who lately purchased Pureweave’s digital printed Kaftan.
On hearing the feedback Adil laughs out aloud and says use of the name Kashmir is deliberate but completely apolitical. “I have used it because Kashmir over the centuries has maintained a name and quality of the fibre it has been producing.”
He adds, “I have to revive and maintain that reputation which Kashmir’s fibre had in the world outside.”
The Mirs were into the raw material business since 1990s. In late 1990s they started manufacturing scarves and stoles under the name Imexpashm but then they were operating from Delhi and had their offices in Dubai and London.
It was in the year 2007, Adil conceived Pureweave and thought of starting a complete factory unit of manufacturing fabric in Kashmir. Till then Mirs used to manufacture scarves and stole in the factories leased out in different parts of India.
However, a few of those spinning mills are still in use for converting the raw material into yarns.
After the foundation stone of the present factory was laid in 2007 a structure of columns and half built walls was erected in the industrial estates in Rangreth. But Adil remembers the structure remained haunted for three years.
The unrest in the year 2008, 2009 and 2010 took a toll and delayed what Adil had dreamt of but these things did not discourage him, he emphasizes. “I wanted to do it and I did it!” Adil says firmly.
The construction work of the factory was restarted in early 2011 and was completed in next two years.
After the unit, spread over 5000 sq.ft, in Rangreth was complete, Adil took the tough decision. He winded up all the offices and manufacturing units, apart from the leased out spinning mills, and shifted them to Srinagar.
“Shifting and installation of the machinery was the hardest task so far. It took a lot of time and I needed to train the locals to run the machine,” says Adil.
So far Adil has invested around Rs 8 crores in the units and employs at least 50 people in the factory who draws a salary of around 6 lakh per month. Almost 80 percent of them are locals and Adil aspires to generate more employment with time.
“The number of orders increase on daily basis so the need of workers also increase,” says Adil, “we conduct interviews almost once or twice every week.”
Besides, he is planning to expand the area of the factory five folds, so, he adds, bigger area would ask for larger number of workers and “I will definitely prefer locals.”
The factory runs for 24 hours and for 6 days a week and the total production is between 15,000 and 20,000 metres a month. The workers are provided with the hostel facility while as some of them, who are not required to stay in the factory for the night, are dropped home by the evening.
Adil is working day and night to make the brand, Pureweave, a success and is open to feedback. He welcomes feedback for anything from the tea served in his office to the fabric manufactured in his factory. He believes only improvement makes things better.
Adil’s day starts early and he reaches office before 10 am. “I stay here till late in the evening and make it a point that I check every single order myself.”
Adil, though an IT expert is an artist at heart, he says. For many years he has worked with fashion designer and has conducted a lot of fashion shows across the globe including United Kingdom. He is an amateur photographer as well.
But after travelling across the globe and working with big brands he chose to come back to Kashmir.
“I came back because I noticed it is the safest place in the world [viz-a viz crime],” says Adil. “This is a statement as a father of three daughters,” he says with a cheerful smile.
“We can see when a group of youngsters are holding stones they don’t loot an ATM,” he explains on a lighter note, “They have their own targets.”
Adil has a taste of his own. Taking into consideration the exceptional exposure he has about fashion and fabric, he assures that Pureweave is different from the usual stuff.
Apart from the usual yak wool, angora, mohar and rabbit wool Adil uses some special fibres which are not manufactured anywhere in India. They include Camel hair – these are short camels found in high altitude of China’s Alishan region. Their hair is long and soft and as good as Pashmina. The material is usually used for making stoles and exists mostly in original camel colour.
The raw material is procured from China, UK, Italy and Australia.
What Italy is in fashion, I want to make Kashmir in fabric, concludes Adil.