Patanjali CEO & MD Acharya Balkrishna Reiterates Plans To Foray Into Textile Business

Patanjali CEO & MD Acharya Balkrishna Reiterates Plans To Foray Into Textile Business

Patanjali Ayurved Ltd plans to foray into the textile business and it is engaged in research and development activities to ready itself for such ventures, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director Acharya Balkrishna said today, reiterating his earlier statements in this regard.

“We can’t say at this point how long it will take; it is part of our plans. Our team is carrying out R&D for this, and we are working towards it,” Balkrishna said, without mentioning any date or quantum of investment.

Incidentally, Baba Ramdev himself had made a statement on the sidelines of the Global Investors’ Summit last year saying, “We will come into textiles from next year and will manufacture both men and women wear”.

"From fashion wear to jeans, coat to langot (inner wear), Patanjali is going full steam ahead towards its goal of promoting manufacturing in India. Next year (2017) we will be making foray into textiles on a big scale. People are only talking about jeans, but we plan to make the complete range, including kurta pajama, saree, coat and langot,” he had said.

Sometime in October 2016, a team from the Raymond Group had even showed different samples of its products to Patanjali executives. Ahmedabad-based textile manufacturer Arvind, too, had contacted Patanjali to explore business opportunities.

“Some big names of the (textile) industry have approached us. Few meetings have already taken place. We will take the textile industry together and this will be a collective effort,” Ramdev had said.

Balkrishna himself had said that jeans have become so popular that they cannot be taken away from the Indian society and that Patanjali would launch “swadeshi’ jeans in an Indianised style, design and fabric.

‘Our jeans for women will be loose so that they comply with Indian cultural norms and are also comfortable for them. Indian families will find our swadeshi jeans concept very comfortable,” he had said, adding that five big companies had approached Patanjali to manufacture swadeshi jeans and a team of designers specialising in Indian wear were working on various designs.