PrOFILE

The design leap for Industree happened through a French client’s insistent demand for mats with ‘sari borders’, recounts Neelam Chhiber, founder-director of the organisation that she heads with Geetha Rao, the co-founder.

Industree, a social entrepreneurship organisation, sells hand-crafted lifestyle products made from natural fibres. At the time of the awkward request, Industree was largely focused on the export market, and it had them flummoxed as they debated the practicality of ripping off borders from saris on a large scale. “Then it dawned on us that what he was talking about was zari borders,” says Chhiber.

The jewel-coloured, river-grass mats with brocade borders that Industree made for that client went on to become their signature product. The concept was extended to furniture, table-ware, stationary holders and storage boxes and these are still their largest selling items.

Today, with a store each in Bangalore, Delhi and Calcutta (at the South City Mall) and a second, large-format store coming up in home-city Bangalore, Industree looks poised to jump into the big league of design retail. Having got an investment of Rs 6.3 crore from Kishore Biyani’s Future Group, the organisation has other big plans up its sleeve too. “We are adding apparel and food to our range of products, and these will be retailed under a different umbrella brand which will also offer shares to the producers and artisans,” says Chibber.

Industree has come a long way since it started retailing a little more than a decade ago with a lone store in Malleswaram, a tucked-away corner of old Bangalore. Eventually, the products were picked up by retailers like The Design Store, Pantaloons, Shoppers’ Stop, Welspun and Landmark. The brand also gained an international presence and started selling out of stores such as Ikea and Crate and Barrel. Soon, it was designing eco-friendly floor coverings for UK carpet tile company InterfaceFLOR.

Industree uses only recyclable, natural fibres. Along with dyed river grass, Industree now uses a variety of fibres such as banana bark, palm, screwpine, sisal, bamboo and water hyacinth. They have also been spinning a yarn from the banana fibre, crocheted into bags and cushion covers.

trends

The use of natural fibres is a trend that seems to be gaining momentum in the West, believes Chhiber, and while India is rich in this heritage there’s also a lot to learn from other South East Asian countries. This explains why the design team at Industree — steered by Chhiber, a trained product designer from NID — is always kept on its toes.

One of the challenges, she says, is to interpret everyday products that are traditionally made from other materials and giving them a new avatar. “I also enjoy putting together materials that traditionally might not be used in the same product,” says Chhiber.

According to Chhiber, a trend that will pick up in the near future is the slowing down of trend cycles. “The use-and-throw attitude will have to be abandoned as resources on our planet dwindle,” she says. The focus will be on long-term usability and recycling. Chhiber also believes that the West is leaning towards the hand-made and the eco-friendly, and while this is something Indians inherently practice, they will also do so more consciously.

PrOducts

Industree’s range is divided into three sections — living, being and giving. While the first focuses on home products like furniture, floor mats, cushions, table lamps, planters, runners and place mats, ‘being’ is all about items of personal use such as bags and jewel boxes while ‘giving’ encompasses gift products like hand-crafted photo frames. Prices range from Rs 75 for small boxes to Rs 350 onwards for mats and table-ware and around Rs 200 photo frames etc.

Industree also has a unique range of natural fibre office-ware that can lend colour to any drab desk — from pen-stands and folders to box files and file racks, made of river grass, banana bark and screwpine. These cost anywhere between Rs 200 and Rs 1000.

Moving into furniture was a big leap for the brand and it led to considerable experimentation with natural fibres. Lately Industree has been selling living room furniture made of banana bark, strips of which are twisted into sturdy yet attractive chairs and sofas that cost around Rs 30,000 for a complete set.