MUMBAI, INDIA—Publicly held (since 1982) Siyaram Silk Mills Ltd. is a $250 million apparel fabric, garment company with 150 retail stores, it is also four years into a ten year plan to build an important home furnishings fabric supplier of drapery and upholstery under the casamoda® brand. Siyaram is a powerhouse with 400 distributors in India and 40,000 retail outlets and  a well known, much advertised brand in India today.

Casamoda started in the volume business but expects to end up in the high-end  business and in the process, it expects to build a home fabrics company in the $100 million range after ten years by giving a true value to the customer. This year, Casamoda will show its line at a Como hotel during Proposte for the first time.

Casamoda is being led by 27 year old Abhishek Poddar, a University of Michigan (USA) graduate and perhaps the youngest chief executive in the fabrics industry anywhere today. The modest, self effacing young man is in the process of building out his first showroom for the trade only here under the watchful eye of Ashok Biyani , managing partner and a career textile veteran charged with bringing the technical aspects of the business to the loom floor.

  Sudeep Gurung, Ashok Biyani and Abhishek Poddar

“We started the home furnishings segment of our business in 2009 as a Greenfield project,” Poddar said. We have 48 Somet looms with jacquard heads in double widths plus 164 dobbies weaving the home furnishings fabrics,” Poddar said.  He asked to head this new project instead of taking a safer route through the existing apparel business, he explained. “Apparel is a slim margin business for us while home promises larger profits,” he said.

“Buyers are looking for an alternative supplier in India, and we are it,” he laughed. After all, he started the business in the midst of a recession. “When business is at zero, it’s a great time to start,” he said, explaining that sales are rising every year. The vertical mill is ISO certified, he said and “we have the financial backing from our parent company. In fact, his parents run the parent company! Casamoda brand works with fancy and blended yarns of linen and viscose for $3.50 a yard in drapery and $8 a yard with viscose, linen and polyester.

This is the complete price range at present in silk and linen looks. Poddar said. Upholstery weight is available in the $4-$10-$12 price point. Currently, Siyaram Casamoda is enjoying export sales in USA through Joyce Siegle; Australia. UK. Europe and the Middle East. “We’re in a customer acquisition mode,” said Sudeep Gurung, the export manager and general manager of marketing.