Our Work
Drawing inspiration from India's agrarian economy Industree has focused on developing design, technical and skill initiatives in the natural fibre craft sector. The move into natural fibres came from easy availability of raw material and quick identification of weavers with the requisite skill set and the knowledge that more could be easily trained. In addition, Industree could add a considerable value addition in terms of design and take advantage of the fact that the natural fibre sector had a huge potential for product differentiation.
Market trends showed that customer preferences were moving towards 'natural and handmade ' goods. Natural fibres like River Grass, Corn Husk, wheat skin, sisal, korai grass, bamboo, water hyacinth and banana were identified as having a high global commercial value. Further, the sector required high labour content and a low capital investment, making it suitable for Indian conditions.
Industree opted for these sectors with deliberate intent as by providing access to technology to upgrade traditional tools, materials and processes they could cut down the arduous and heavy labour involved. Traditionally women do much of the labour intensive work in the natural fibre sector and they have benefited from Industree's intervention. Industree's focus is on encouraging production in an environmentally sustainable way in order to balance the social and economic intent of the venture.
Industree opened up the sector by collaborating with the government and Non Governmental Organisations. In order to foster growth, Industree opened up five centres in Vellore, Tirunelveli, Bhavani, Udupi and Bangalore. However, they constantly face the challenge of juggling time bound and stringent product specifications of customers, while concurrently facilitating development of their artisans.