Preserving the legacy
Preserving the legacy

With the handicraft art under serious threat of extinction, MDCPL has done its bit in restoring some of the lost pride and heritage. Mr. Arun Agarwal, Managing Director, Moradabad Design & Consulting Pvt. Ltd. (MDCPL) enlightens us about the effort being put in by them.

Aadeetya Sriram (AS): Tell us about MDCPL? What was your idea behind this initiative? How long have you been in existence?

Arun Agarwal (AA): MDCPL is a mega-cluster scheme under the government of India. The purpose of this initiative is to serve the portions in the country, which has huge talent of art & craft. We involve ourselves in developing the skills of the man force undertaking handicraft production as well as providing them with the education of marketing their products.  We are helping the artisans of the Moradabad cluster, to develop their skills, providing them the platform to establish themselves in the industry. We started up less than a year back.

AS: What is the role of government in setting up MDCPL?

AA: MDCPL is a public-private partnership venture; the government plays its role in determining the factors within which the industry is run, as we provide our expertise to meet their objectives. They have trusted our industry knowledge for this.

AS: How much have you invested in MDCPL?

AA: We have invested Rs.40cr which includes the cost of setting up our design center which is due to be completed by July this year, marketing costs.

AS: How is MDCPL connected to the retailers?

AA: In terms of retailing, we are discussing the possibility of Shop in Shop, it is categorised into 2 parts, first one being the cottage emporium & hhac showrooms, one thing we are making sure is that not neglecting the Indian market, the middle-class over here wants such products, so within India we are planning to set-up shop in shop concepts, we will also be launching our brand catering to retailing, M3, which we hope will be a successful enterprise.  We plan to have 5 stores in the first 2 years, after which we will gauge the viability of expanding our reach. We have already conducted the demographic study for the positioning of the stores; we will primarily focus on Chennai, Ludhiana, Gurgaon, and Mumbai which satisfy our requirements.

AS: What is the export mechanism that MDCPL has adopted?

AA: We will be undertaking the export process in two ways; either we will link them with the exporters or with an objective to make them an entrepreneur, there will be entire logistic support in terms of documentation, packaging, compliance, we will link them with the exporter, if not we will ensure they their fair share of margin from the exports of the handicrafts across the globe.

AS: Will you be looking at the possibility of partnering with retail brands such as Fab India?

AA:  We can definitely see ourselves partnering with them in the near future, but we must ensure that we are not providing them with our products just for the sake of their relevance to the vertical but also providing the goods for the value that represents the brand. We intend to create the look the retailer associates with and hence providing them with the goods of their choice.

 

 

 

 

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