From curtains to cushions and chairs to sofas, Indian Drape is a brand that has been the country’s upholstery identity since its inception in 1985. The brand today caters to customers from Jammu to Kanyakumari and is best known for the originality and quality of the prints.
Mr. Jayesh Dave, now its Managing Director, started the company at the age of 20 with a vision of building a brand that becomes the name of prints in India, as before Indian Drape came into existence the Indian home décor market did not have a concept of printed fabric for curtains and upholstery.
The first product of the company was printed fabric that used a traditional technique known as screen printing, for furnishings. Indian Drape was the first in the country to make prints on fabrics such as cotton, satin and polyester. It started with screen printing in 1985 on cotton fabric and then moved to emboss prints on polyester in 1987 and also became the first one to start transfer print in India in 1994.
Based and mainly operating in India, Indian Drape started with a capital of just Rs. 5,000. Today it has a business of worth Rs. 500 million, with a domestic market share of around 80 per cent. It has also become one of the most dominant players in the print industry and is growing year after year. It specializes in producing fabrics of different textures and styles with the eye catching factor of originality of design and the number of stages of value addition the fabric goes through before finally being sold.
Almost 90 per cent of the income is through the domestic market, exports constituting 10 per cent. The products are exported to countries like Germany, New Zealand and the US.
J&Y fabrics are the brand name under which the products of Indian Drape are displayed and sold. Although there are no stores that solely sell J&Y products, the brand has 350 retail outlets in India, operated through a distribution network.
Though it has a printing unit of its own, the fabric is not manufactured by the company. Production of textiles is outsourced to looms which have been making quality fabric for the company since last 25 years. However, not having a spinning and weaving facility has not compromised on the printing facility and quality of the brand. The value addition facility includes printing, embroidery done by multi-head embroidery machines, embossing and coating.
Asked why fabric manufacturing was outsourced, Mr. Jayesh Dave said: “Like a milk vendor selling milk and sweet shops buy it, we buy fabrics from looms and just like sweet shops add condensed milk and dry fruits to make it a sweet. We do a lot of value addition to the fabric and make it into marketable upholstery. We see the possibility of the print on the fabric, we do maximum possible value addition and then we sell”.
Apart from being one of the oldest and most predominant brand in the Indian market, what lures customers to Indian Drape is its unmatched originality of prints. All the prints are carefully harmonized with the original design, which many other new brands often fail to do. The company makes sure that the colors are exactly like the real material to give a natural feel to the fabric. With an experience of 35 years and a manufacturing capacity of more than 15 lakh meters a year the company has surely made a clear mark in the printing sector.
Despite being so successful in creating such beautiful prints and textures, the company does not have its own design team. The sketches are bought from European designers and original designs are created out of them. The color is then developed and carefully matched. The area of focus currently is on transfer prints for which paper is bought from Italy and Germany.
Indian Drape generated a turnover of Rs. 46 crores in 2016-17, divided equally between curtains and upholstery, and is growing by 8-10% year on year. “In the next 5 to 10 years, Indian Drape will grow and become a much bigger brand in the Indian market. Since no other brand can copy our designs or create such original designs, every fabric gets around five times value addition”, said Mr. Jayesh Dave.
As the company is continuously trying to bring new and better products to the market, the innovation for 2017 included swayed finished fabric with bronzing on it. There is no plan to set up its own brand outlet in the near future or to start technical textile printing.
The company mission is to keep introducing new types of print textures and textiles, follow the latest trends and to be a trend-setter of tomorrow, to create and deliver the products that support a splendid lifestyle perfectly. The new generation that is running the company includes Mr. Jayesh’s younger brother Yash Dave and his daughters.
The company brand is evolving as a market leader in transfer printed fabrics, velvets, upholstery fabrics, textured fabrics, etc. The company remains customer-focused without ever compromising on the quality of products. This has indeed made the customers loyal to the brand, and it promises to keep these relations same even in the coming years.
Through a combination of verve, vision and variety, Indian Drape has become a part of many homes throughout its journey of more than three decades, and the future surely looks more promising for it.