Surat weavers devise new way of doing business to control payment defaults

Powerloom weavers from Sachin GIDC and Hojiwala Estate have unanimously decided not to enter into any business deal with merchants who do not provide valid references of traders from respective markets in the city as there is rising number of defaults in the textile market.

This has forced at least 2000 powerloom weavers to devise a new way of doing business in the market. Now, fabric merchants and traders will have to furnish valid references of prominent traders from the market to purchase unfinished fabrics from the weavers.

Moreover, the weavers will collect bio-data of traders operating from rented premises in the textile markets. The traders operating from rented shops will have to provide references of shop owners as well as two other traders having shops in the same market. The final verification of the details submitted by the traders will be cross-verified by a committee of Sachin Weavers’ Welfare Association (SWWA).

The Sachin weavers have adopted strict business practices after over 136 weavers from Sachin GIDC and Hojiwala Estate were cheated by a gang of fly-by-night operators in the textile markets for over Rs 4.5 crore last week.

SWWA president Mahendra Ramoliya said that the weavers are an easy bait for fly-by-night operators. It is high time the weaver community implemented strict measures to curb defaults in the market. Each and every weaver in Sachin has taken an oath for not doing business without reference. They don’t mind losing business, but can’t suffer losses anymore.

Unfinished fabrics are sold to the textile traders. The traders in turn send the grey fabrics to the textile dyeing and printing mills for final finishing of the fabrics and later to the embroidery units, digital printing units etc. for designing exquisite saris and dress material fabric.

The city houses country’s largest man-made fabric (MMF) industry. There are 50,000 weaving units housing around 6.5 lakh powerloom machines. These units weave around 3.75 crore meters of fabric every day worth over Rs 75 crore.