Women on Wings’ business partner Jharcraft brings new weavers to their standards by having them produce fabrics that have not yet been turned into products. In April, Women on Wings expert Cornelie Guise and consultant Tanveen Ratti held a three day workshop with the Jharcraft marketing and design team to develop some new end-products, aspiring to make them ready to market. The aim of the workshop was to increase creativity and market driven productivity.
Seven Jharcraft team members participated in the workshop at Jharcraft’s head office in Ranchi, Jharkhand. In three days they worked on the inventory of the fabrics, identifying new product categories, new products, target groups, costing and new sales channels.
Shefali Kongari, AGM – Marketing at Jharcraft: “We had been doing our work since long, but Tanveen and Cornelie inspired us to do it in a different, interesting and more productive way. Think out of the box. It was like breathing new life into our fabrics!”
Cornelie: “The team was initially a bit quiet as they did not know what was expected from them, but once they understood the why of the workshop they enthusiastically worked on the how and what. They came up with many great ideas, which we downsized to a few with the highest potential. We already made some prototypes like a linned and quilted set of table runner with mats and a small pouch.”
Tanveen will continue working with the team on designs for new home furnishing products. Every month, Cornelie will send a product that is hot in Europe on which the Jharcraft team can work on. The many beautiful fabrics the Jharcraft weavers produce, will be turned into a range of new products that may even end up in retail stores other than Jharcraft stores.
