Word: fabindia
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William Bissell inherited a company built on good intentions. His father, John Bissell, went to India in 1958 on a Ford Foundation grant, married an Indian woman and never left. The Bissells started a business exporting handmade textiles, and their company, Fabindia, thrived on sending traditional crafts to the West, just in time for the first wave of baby-boomer bohemian chic...
...John Bissell died, leaving his then 31-year-old son with a daunting choice. William could let the company coast (the export business was doing well, but handweaving limited the volumes that Fabindia could trade in). Or he could begin selling cheaper, machine-produced cloth, discarding his father's belief in the handmade. Instead, he took a third way. He knit together Fabindia's 40,000 individual artisans into a reliable supply chain and began focusing on the domestic market. Starting with a handful of boutiques, Bissell created a 110-store, $65 million national brand - without straying far from...
...Meanwhile, he is trying to help the community-owned businesses formed by Fabindia suppliers to become self-sustaining. He believes the artisans' future lies in their ability to sell to any company, not just his own. It might sound altruistic, but Bissell is quick to point out that Fabindia won't thrive unless they do. "A lot will depend on what happens to these community-owned companies," he says. For them, as it is for India, good intentions aren't enough...
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