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TEA’s
brand promotion programme makes slow progress
Sudha
Swaminathan - Coimbatore
Progress made by the Tirupur Exporters’ Association (TEA) towards
the brand promotion project is much less than expected. More than
five months have elapsed since the TEA proposed to start the project
by January 2002, but no significant progress has been made.
Under the initiative taken by UNIDO, TEA had conceptualised the
project two years ago. Even as TEA has structured the ‘executive
mechanism’ to implement the project, the minimum number of
participants required to join the project have not been satisfactory.
Despite scaling down the minimum number of participants for the
project from 40 to 25, the association has not been able to pool
the same. Even as 40 prospective exporters have expressed interest
in joining the programme, hitherto only 14 exporters have registered.
“Absence of the required number of participants is delaying
the offtake of the project” said Mr Loganathan, chairman of
the core committee.
Scepticism about the concept itself is one of the main reasons that
has kept exporters away. “Though participants will gain obvious
benefits from the programme, we are not able to convince them on
certain areas” lamented Mr Loganathan. “Hence it has been
decided to address the common issues of the participants”.
At the recently held core committee meeting, it was decided to launch
a mobilisation campaign among the members, informed Mr Loganathan.
In the background of textile recession, finance has also become
a major concern for the exporters, that is keeping the interested
exporters away from the project. Participants are to contribute
an amount of Rs 5 lakh per annum for three years. “Given the
current economic scenario, funds are another constraint for the
interested exporters,” added a TEA official.
Meanwhile, allegations abound about the functioning of the core
committee formed to implement the programme and oversee the operations.
Highly placed sources in the industry feel that the efforts made
by the core committee to bring the interested exporters together
have been inadequate and the committee has failed to work in close
co-ordination with the interested exporters. “We have adopted
a cautious approach in every activity, as we have to vouch for all
the participants in this collective approach,” averred Mr Loganathan.
The Rs 50 crore dream project of the TEA is touted to take the merchandise
of the Tirupur knitwear industry to the unexplored niche markets.
The common brand would give an identity to the merchandise from
Tirupur in terms of meeting quality, environment and social standards.
Meanwhile, TEA has recently initiated an environment management
programme in association with Ecosmart, a private company, to reduce
Green House Gases emission in Tirupur knitwear cluster, sponsored
by USAID.
The project with an estimated outlay of Rs 50 lakh is expected to
be completed by 2004.
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