The towels used by world tennis champions like Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Maria Sharapova, generally known as Wimbledon towels, will be available in India from next year. The Mumbai-based diversified group Welspun, which supplied the Christy towels for the third year running from India, has been given permission to retail it in the country by the Wimbledon organisers.
“There is good news for the Indian (tennis) fans as well, because from next year onwards the towels will be available in India. The agreement to this effect has been reached with the All England Lawn Tennis Club (AELTC) after immense persuasion with the authorities,” Welspun Chairman BK Goenka said.
Apart from being used by the players, the Christy towels are available in all the shops at the Wimbledon site during the event.
“For the rest of the year, the towels are available in the Museum shop which is open to the visitors all the year round. It can also be purchased online in the UK from the Wimbledon shop,” Mr. Goenka said.
For this year’s tournament ending on July 8 in London, Welspun supplied over a lakh Christy towels.
Every year the quantities keep on growing following mounting demand. It may be noted that Christy towel is the second largest selling item during the tournament after McDonalds Burger. For Wimbledon Championship 2011, the company had shipped 92,493 pieces of towels.
Welspun had acquired CHT Holdings Ltd., the holding company of Britain’s leading towel brand, Christy, in 2006.
“This is the first change in many years wherein the Wimbledon logo has been recreated (in the towel). The towel has been designed by Welspuns’ UK design studio,” he added.
The towels have already been manufactured and a major portion of the quantity has been shipped from the Vapi (Gujarat) factory of Welspun India Ltd.