From musty emporiums to glitzy stores, Co-optex rebrands itself

Once popular for its affordable cotton saris and sheets, an 80-year-old Tamil Nadu state company Ashtalakshmi handloom store in Chennai has come back in the reckoning by wooing younger customers and has thus rebranded itself. The store is also looking at selling online a mix of contemporary and classical designs presenting handloom as a mass product. In the stores, products are displayed by region with posters on each kind of weave. Saris comes with a photo identity tag that tells the customer about the person who wove their sari and how long it took.

Soft lighting and modern décor style up new stores. The racks range from traditional Kanjeevarams to newfangled organic cotton saris. This is the newest avatar of a venerable state enterprise, the Tamil Nadu Handloom Weavers' Co-operative Society, better known as Co-optex.

After years of losses, Co-optex came back in 2013. Last year, new showrooms opened after a long gap, and record sales of Rs 313 crores and profits of Rs 10 crores. Established in 1935, Co-optex was a staple destination for affordable cotton saris, sheets and towels for decades. But its fortunes fell, like those of other handloom cooperatives as tastes evolved and demand withered after liberalisation. By the early 2000s, Co-optex was running in losses as high as Rs 85 crores. Losses spurred the organization to cut costs. It closed hundreds of showrooms across the country and let 500 employees go through VRS (voluntary retirement scheme).

A 2011 study identified the key problem “If your customers are all 60-year-olds, then it's going to be hard to survive.” From then began a new phase of experimentation. A design studio was established with NID graduates. Weavers were taken to other states to learn new techniques. The new range thus has designs like Andhra pochampalli motifs on Dindigul. The new products including readymade kurtis and linen shirts have seen an increased outreach at college campuses. Co-optex has tyed up with Flipkart, Snapdeal and Myntra. Stores were ramped up into upscale boutiques.