• StartUps

More often that not people become entrepreneurs to be their own boss or because they feel they’re smarter than them. Sometimes, you find entrepreneurs like Sunil Mande who take the plunge only because something piques their curiosity. In his case, it was the manufacturing sector, eco-textiles to be specific.

The IT professional of over seven years started creating utility cases made from jute and linen in 2004 while still employed. His experiments with such products carried on for about a year and a half till he decided it was time to move forward. “Eco-fibers struck in my mind,” says Mande, Business Director, Sarga Eco-Textiles. He quit his job and with a master weaver, began to experiment with organic fibers, check feasibility and understand the usefulness of each. “We test-ran yarn bought from small manufacturers on leased looms to see what textiles we could make,” he recalls.

Mande spent six months with a cluster of weavers within Karnataka, sourced through Weaver Service Center in Bengaluru (an initiative of the Ministry of Textiles), conducting weaving experiments. While weavers had initial apprehensions on yarn and machine breakage, he was able to convince them and fortunately there were no mishaps.

This phase of research and development was crucial in building Sarga’s products as Mande felt sound knowledge on the properties of each textile would be handy to make it saleable in the future. “Many of us don’t know that bamboo, by default, has anti-bacterial properties,” he cites. During this stage he came across many insights, multiple variations and counts one had with each fiber. “Jute mixed with cotton makes a good fabric for apparel,” he states. And a micro-count of tensil (eucalyptus) turned out to be a great replacement for silk! Sarga has been using fibers like cotton, bamboo, modal, jute, flax, hemp and sisal to develop its textiles for three broad verticals; apparel, home furnishings and industrial usage.

Its eco-textiles, as of today, are 100 percent eco-friendly from fiber to finish, meaning dyes used are organic as well. Finding an organic dye supplier had been a major challenge for Mande and benchmarking the process took three-four months. Thanks to the help of industry veterans consulting the entrepreneur, Mande was able to find an U.S.-based supplier in the process of creating organic dyes who was enthusiastic to develop variations for Sarga. “We caught hold of a dying unit, not much in business, and gave them some work,” quips Mande.

By 2008, he had figured out the first three stages and had his process organically certified. He began business with a few bulk orders, through enquiries from export houses and design studios, without much of a business model in mind. “We spun off both B2B and B2C arms to see how the business goes,” explains Mande.
Technical consultant Jayaram, Project Manager at Binny Mill Ltd., mentor to the venture since inception, vouches for Sarga’s quality of eco-textiles. “Mande has managed to identify proper sizing agents for his fabrics and has succeeded in achieving good standards of weaving too,” says Jayaram.

A small twist in Sarga’s tale came with the recession and the startup hit pause for a year. But Mande took this as an opportunity to reach out to investors but that didn’t go as planned either. His business was too small and the industry itself was just growing. Research told him, in 2007 India’s export of eco-textiles (mainly organic cotton, fiber and yarn) was 17,000 tons. “We couldn’t position ourselves well with investors,” he adds. However, by 2009, this number had reached 80,000 tons.

Persistence and patience brought a turnaround and by 2010 he secured investment from Morpheus Ventures (Rs.5 lakh) and independent investor Gautam Manel. From this period Mande and Co-founder Vasishta, who came on board recently, focused energies on the B2B arm solely. “We’ve generated 99 percent business online via B2B portals and referrals,” claims Mande. So far, the startup has been trying to get into markets aware of eco-friendly products and working towards associating itself with those companies. These geographies, however, are currently outside India and include Europe, the U.K. and the U.S.

“Mande should identify clients whose demands he can meet and avoid dealing with discount stores like Wal-Mart,” advises Manel. “For a niche product like Sarga’s, Mande needs to identify clients who bring value, not just volumes,” adds the investor. The founders are currently selling only through distributors who sell to retailers.

As far as the domestic market goes, Sarga sells to exporters and design houses. Its fabric is priced between Rs.110-Rs.600 per meter. “The quality of Sarga’s fabrics is quite good and they have a decent variety of blends which give us room to play around with,” says Sudhir Swain, Co-founder, Kalanta Studio, a Bengaluru-based design studio that has been sourcing eco-textiles from the startup for six months. “I’d like to see more blends of knits rather than woven,” requests Swain.

As part of its expansion plans, Sarga will be launching organic and bamboo denim for international markets by May 2011 under its own brand Vert, starting with jeans for now. Alongside, it is looking to launch ‘Sarga’ brand of home furnishings for the domestic market. Within this vertical, it’s actively looking to target the healthcare and hospitality industries as part of a parallel B2B sales strategy. “I’m not sure if changing route mid-stream is the best way for Sarga considering Mande has very little capital,” points out Manel in context to Mande’s ambitions within the apparel and home furnishings verticals.

However, for Mande, this seems like a long ranged vision considering Sarga will have its own production facility in another one and a half years, if the startup meets targets.

Till then, he is confident of managing with existing units. “Cash flow is important for a manufacturing business and we see a great opportunity on the consumer side, if we go ahead,” Mande concludes.

©Entrepreneur May 2011

Tags:
B2B, babmboo, Binny mill, cotton, flax, gautum manel, Jayaram, Jute, kalanta studio, modal, production, Sarga Eco textiles, sudhir swain, Sunil Mande, textile, vashishta, Walmart