Glass unit sees gains in Hindu gods
Vishal Sharma
AGRA. Firozabad town, located about 50 km from Agra, is known throughout the world for its glass industry, whose production quality comes next only to the Belgian glass.
In all, there are 257 registered glass units in this town, manufacturing everything from glass bangles to precious lead-crystal chandeliers, being exported to European countries, where the Firozabad product is in high demand for being low-cost compared to the Belgian glass.
But with the competition in the glass industry growing internationally, the local industrialists are now searching for new avenues of business by expanding their product range, taking an innovative path.
Aakarshan Enterprises, one such glass-manufacturing unit of Firozabad, has now taken the bold step of challenging the traditional Chinese gold- and platinum-painted glass panes, which had captured the Indian market till date, by selling hand-painted pictures of Hindu gods and goddesses on glass.
Talking to Business Standard yesterday, Chakresh Jain, the managing director, said till recently, China was the only country producing hand-painted pictures on glass in gold and platinum and it had even entered the Indian market, selling Indian mythological figures and Hindu gods/goddesses, which had been painted in China.
He said that judging from the huge demand for such hand-painted pictures in the Indian market, he decided to take a plunge in this field and after a few initial hiccups, the company was now grossing over Rs 1 crore a year in direct sales of this glass-craft to various embassies in Delhi and exports through intermediaries.
According to Jain, with the onslaught of hand-painted stuff, the glass-etching process had now become outdated and he had received orders worth Rs 1 crore from exporters for this product.
He said till now, the only limitation the firm was facing was that though some Firozabad units were capable of making liquid gold and platinum in large quantities, the pastes of these precious metals were still being imported from Italy through two Delhi-based importers, Heraeus Pvt Ltd and Ceradecor, both of whom charged between Rs 1.40 lakh and Rs 1.52 lakh per kg for this paste, which could have been imported from anywhere in the world, Germany, the US or the UK.
But now, he said an Agra-based company, Indian Ceramic House, had begun the production of this paste, which was not inferior to the Italian paste in any way and was available at around Rs 90,000-120,000 per kg.
This local source had enabled the company to considerably expand its production line at a lower production cost than earlier.
(UNITED NEWS NETWORK)
For any queries or feedback - vishalsh521@yahoo.com 9412652381, 9319108155
AGRA. Firozabad town, located about 50 km from Agra, is known throughout the world for its glass industry, whose production quality comes next only to the Belgian glass.
In all, there are 257 registered glass units in this town, manufacturing everything from glass bangles to precious lead-crystal chandeliers, being exported to European countries, where the Firozabad product is in high demand for being low-cost compared to the Belgian glass.
But with the competition in the glass industry growing internationally, the local industrialists are now searching for new avenues of business by expanding their product range, taking an innovative path.
Aakarshan Enterprises, one such glass-manufacturing unit of Firozabad, has now taken the bold step of challenging the traditional Chinese gold- and platinum-painted glass panes, which had captured the Indian market till date, by selling hand-painted pictures of Hindu gods and goddesses on glass.
Talking to Business Standard yesterday, Chakresh Jain, the managing director, said till recently, China was the only country producing hand-painted pictures on glass in gold and platinum and it had even entered the Indian market, selling Indian mythological figures and Hindu gods/goddesses, which had been painted in China.
He said that judging from the huge demand for such hand-painted pictures in the Indian market, he decided to take a plunge in this field and after a few initial hiccups, the company was now grossing over Rs 1 crore a year in direct sales of this glass-craft to various embassies in Delhi and exports through intermediaries.
According to Jain, with the onslaught of hand-painted stuff, the glass-etching process had now become outdated and he had received orders worth Rs 1 crore from exporters for this product.
He said till now, the only limitation the firm was facing was that though some Firozabad units were capable of making liquid gold and platinum in large quantities, the pastes of these precious metals were still being imported from Italy through two Delhi-based importers, Heraeus Pvt Ltd and Ceradecor, both of whom charged between Rs 1.40 lakh and Rs 1.52 lakh per kg for this paste, which could have been imported from anywhere in the world, Germany, the US or the UK.
But now, he said an Agra-based company, Indian Ceramic House, had begun the production of this paste, which was not inferior to the Italian paste in any way and was available at around Rs 90,000-120,000 per kg.
This local source had enabled the company to considerably expand its production line at a lower production cost than earlier.
(UNITED NEWS NETWORK)
For any queries or feedback - vishalsh521@yahoo.com 9412652381, 9319108155
Comments