By Sabin Iqbal

Mahatma Gandhi once famously said that if one wanted to know the real India one should go to the villages. Ask T.S. Pattabhiraman, chairman and managing director of Kalyan Silks, which is celebrating hundred years in the textile business, and he will say with a glitter in his eyes, “Weaving, nothing but weaving, is the soul of Indian villages.”

“One of the most lasting images of Gandhiji is the one with a spinning wheel.” he adds, out of satisfaction at building one of Kerala’s most recognised silk retail brands. “Nothing is more labour-intensive than weaving,” says Pattabhiraman, sitting in his office at his sprawling Kochi showroom, which is claimed to be the world’s largest silk sari showroom.

Kalyan Silks, which will be touching a turnover of Rs400 crore this year, has built its business on customer loyalty, quality and an understanding of customers’ changing tastes of fashion and trends. In his early days, Pattabhiraman says, he knew almost 90 per cent of his customers by name. “Our strength has been that kind of a personal relationship.”

In the textile business, especially in silk, one needs to be in constant touch with the customers, lest you will be in the dark about their fleeting tastes and trends. “You need to know their heartbeats – their likes and dislikes – to keep them with you all these years,” he adds. “A silk sari is an expression of one’s personality. Each customer takes hours to select her sari. You need to provide a variety of quality and cost. That’s a challenge, and we have been largely successful in satisfying their needs.

A customer who buys a sari that costs between Rs1 lakh and Rs2 lakh obviously wants to see a wide selection. We have many saris worth Rs2 lakh each. And it takes two men and 15 days to weave a traditional silk sari. So imagine the labour involved in weaving all these saris,” says Pattabhiraman who shares his days between showrooms in Thrissur, Palghat and Kochi.

Main business

Kalyan Silks was the first textile retailer to launch branded bridal saris in India. This series is called Sougandhika Silk and is only available through Kalyan Silks outlets. It also has a wholesale division called Kalyan Collections, which caters to the needs of small and medium retail players in Kerala.