The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : APCO launches ‘vastra mela’

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Oct 24, 2007
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

APCO launches ‘vastra mela’

Staff Reporter

20 per cent festival discount being offered

— Photo: R. Shivaji Rao

In different hues: A range of silk and cotton saris are being showcased at APCO’s ‘vastra mela’ that opened in Chennai on Monday.

CHENNAI: The Andhra Pradesh State Handloom Weavers Co-operative Society Limited, under the brand name APCO, launched its ‘vastra mela’ on Monday at its Pondy Bazaar showroom in T. Nagar.

On sale are a range of silk and cotton saris, besides dress materials, bedspreads and other home furnishing products. The shop offers a 20 per cent festival discount and a 50 per cent discount on assorted old stock stored in the shop’s first floor.

The State had over 2 lakh looms providing jobs to thousands of families, said B. Muni Lakshminarayana, Chittoor district director of APCO. The Pondy Bazaar showroom had cotton saris ranging from Rs. 300 to over Rs. 2,000, he added.

It takes a three-member weaver team 20 days to weave a Jamdhani sari. Sixty per cent of the cost of every sari goes towards weavers’ wages, according to Kasa Guravaiah, APCO’s Nellore district director. “Quality is guaranteed at APCO. We offer only the purest variety,” he added.

Co-optex managing director M.P. Nirmala, who inaugurated the fair, said that this festival season Co-optex had so far sold goods worth Rs.7 crore but hoped to earn Rs. 50 crore.

APCO officials said that this year their target was Rs. 150 crore as against last year’s Rs. 138 crore sales.

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