Indian Firm Challenges Chinese Production of Fancy Glass Panes

Author:
Publication: www.newkerala.com
Date: July 19, 2005
URL: http://www.newkerala.com/news.php?action=fullnews&id=7343

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 US$227,000 a year in direct sales of this glass-craft to various embassies in Delhi and exports through intermediaries.
 

Back                          Top