How the ‘Suta’ Sisters Built Rs 50 Cr Saree Brand While Empowering 16000 Weavers.
#womenentrepreneur #WomenEmpowerment
(A Thread👇)
#womenentrepreneur #WomenEmpowerment
(A Thread👇)
Growing up with a father having a transferable job, sisters Taniya and Sujata Biswas were exposed to various cultures, cuisines, communities, and sartorial choices.
This exposure to different cultures and their desire to impact lives eventually led them on a unique journey. In 2014, while Taniya was working as a consultant and Sujata was a Ph.D. scholar at IIT-Bombay, the sisters decided to brainstorm ideas to start an impact-based venture.
After two years of research, the sisters started a saree brand called Suta, meaning thread.
“Despite having no background in fashion or textiles, both of us felt a strong urge to start a brand that would positively impact the weaver and artisan community and revive the dying art forms of India,” says Sujata.
People would often tell them that sarees were for special occasions or something that elderly women wore during visits to the temple, etc.
“We wanted to change that perception and return sarees to everyday life. We started with mulmul sarees, a fine, lightweight, and soft cotton muslin,” says Sujata.
Today, the brand has an exquisite range of cotton sarees, in varieties of jamdani weave, mulmul, malkesh, and banarasi, among others.
Around 16,000 weavers and artisans work with Suta on a contractual basis from states like Bihar, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Telangana, Odisha, Kashmir, and Tamil Nadu.
When a saree comes with a defect, Suta does not return it to the inventory. Instead, they either present the defective products in another collection using embellishing techniques like block printing and embroidery or upcycle them.
What started with a vision to help weavers and an investment of Rs 6 lakh is a happy family of 150 full-time employees and Rs 50 crore of annual revenue.
“There is no other target for us except onboarding more weavers. In addition, we want to work completely with natural fibers in the future and expand our reach with more stores and e-commerce avenues,” says Sujata.
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