(Representative image)Eco-friendly initiatives could be profitable business models too. Ask Job Kollannur, and he will showcase his Sangeetha Bag.
Sangeetha need not be familiar, but think ‘Big Shopper’ and Malayalis won’t miss the point. It was Job who introduced Big Shopper - in various models and forms - in Kerala.
It all began with a brainwave three decades ago. Job has been thinking of a green alternative to plastic. The thought opened up before him the immense possibilities of jute.
Sangeetha Bag, in tune with the changing times, has now diversified and offers - besides shopping bags-laundry bags, trolley bags, laptop cases, file folders, yoga mat, travel bags and tiffin-box carriers, to name a few.
Job procures jute from West Bengal and the raw material brought here is coloured, stitched based on various trendy and customized designs and printed. Sangeetha, now 30-year-old, boasts of having the biggest jute bag manufacturing unit in South India.
Besides exporting its products to more than 30 countries, Sangeetha also has an exclusive showroom in London. The latest one is made for New Zealand, which can hold four or five pizzas.
Job’s jute revolution has benefitted textile showrooms, places of worship, tea dust merchants, laundry shops, conference organizers within and outside the state. Several corporate firms too depend on Sangeetha Bag, which had held exhibitions in India and overseas.
In Ernakulam, the firm has eight production units, which produce affordable jute products with a year’s guarantee. Besides bags, the company also creates a magical world of wall hangings, ornaments, hats, etc. Jute dresses, too, have possibilities.
Though bags for several purposes are being manufactured, Job is yet to market schoolbags.
“It requires more experiments. Our strength is staying contemporary without compromising on quality,” he says, adding that everything - and anything - is possible with jute.
