"Not home textile, I would say we are in the business of home fashion," says Anshuman Singh, chief executive officer (domestic business), Welspun India. That actually says a lot about the strategy on which the Rs 2,200-crore group has built its home linen business (besides home linen, the group has interests in saw pipes, pipe coating, cotton yarns and specialty polyester filament yarns). For the uninitiated, Welspun is the world�s largest manufacturer of terry towels and India�s largest exporter of home linen,and its customers include the likes of Wal-Mart, K-Mart, Costco, Shopko, Ikea, Tommy Hilfiger and Calvin Klein.

Welspun has big plans for the Indian home linen market, which has remained highly unorganised, despite being a Rs 16,000-crore industry. The organised players make up a small Rs 200 crore and Singh would like to see it grow to Rs 2,000 crore in two years. How will that happen? And what role will Welspun play in it? "Awareness about the category needs to be built," says Singh. "None of the players who came in before us have made the effort to proactively build a market or create a need for such products," he adds.... more