Mother Earth
3 Floors divided into different Sections- Accessories&Home, Apparels and Furniture.
Accessories & Home: Bag, Ceramic, Games, Food Items, Recycled Flex folders, pilloe covers, Lamps etc
(brands/NGO- Sasha, Hansiba, Conserve, Sadhna, the ants, Sahaj, WFTO, Dharam, People Tree, Community Friendly Movement etc)
Apparel: Kurta, Kurti, Men’s kurta, Jewellery, Saris, Dupatta, Stoles etc.
Furniture/Furnishing: rugs, Crapet, Candles, Inlay work furniture, Bed covers, Side table, dining table, center table, chairs, Mirrors, Baskets, Book racks grass fibre products(chatai) etc
(brands/NGO- Urban Yoga, Zeme, Earth Home, Upasana, Levitate, Karma, Chakra, Sapna, Dastkar, Ranthambhor, India cornucopia, Industree)
They have a wide collection of different products of different styles, part of various crafts all over the world.
Mother Earth is a marketing brand. It has NGO’s and designers under it which keep their products in the store, and give a margin of it to Mother Earth.
USP- Mother Earth is fully based on organic and natural material. They consider health and environment to be of prime most importance.
People, mostly women, even foreigners come exclusively to Mother Earth.
Mother Earth keeps food products also. Guarantee of being fully organic, unadulterated hygienic products make the customers trust the brand and rely on it.
Famous designers like Mukul Goyal also showcase their work.
They have their own set up in koramangla, where they manufacture the grass fibre products themselves. It’s a very prominent product in their store.
What I like about the store, that there were toys which were self taught and educational. There was a holistic, sensitive, social approach.
Home Stop
-2 floors, very long, Home products/ accessories on one and furniture on the other.
Home stop is an offshoot of Shoppers Stop. So it has no apparel collection as compared to mother earth.
The store mostly has International Brand.
They have a stark contrast to mother earth, in terms of interiors. Higher ceiling, organized signage, brighter lighting system, less cramped, very professionally designed display systems.
They have heavy duty consumer products. Very commercial products. With brands like art d’ inox, Magpie, Fern etc. Products are for the new and modern, urbanized high profile buyers.
There was a marked difference in the finishing of the product. Obviously international standards needs to be met, plus comparatively a negligible amount was hand done.
Amazing part was it had a section of Mother earth in its store. Also it had recently launched a new brand called “back to Earth”. It almost showed the growing trend of being environment conscious, be it a marketing tactic. There was a corner where an NGO of Bangalore was, with a table and a few things on display. It seemed like a misfit there.
The first floor with furniture: one section had furniture come in only from Rajasthan, and one part had imported furniture. The imported furniture were new concepts, like making a 4 seater into a 6 seater.
Maya organic had displayed its furniture, toys, children furniture.
Kelachandra Veneer Industry
Its primarily a veneer production factory. They get different kinds of woods and cut out very thin layers out of it. The thin layers are then joined by hand with glue to make big sheets of 8 * 4.
The factory also makes doors and panels. They themselves do simple lamination (veneer on the board wood, ply wood etc). They outsource press laminate on complicate curved wood and etched designs.
They have a new upcoming section for Honey comb Paper. They get raw paper, make the honey comb structure. They stretch the paper and heat it so it retains the shape. They sandwich it between two ply wood pieces, by sticking the veneer with powder glue.
Featherlite
A furniture factory, they use a lot of MDF and ply wood to make the furniture. They have all the machinery to be able to make neat furniture. They have a big setup with an office cum studio. They do upholstery work as well. That is they stick cloth on to wood to give it a finished look. It is generally used for portioning. They have a different section for metal, mainly aluminum. They do all the fabrication, bending, molding, from scratch in that section. They mostly make big office units, lockers etc, mainly for a mass production.
India Wood
It was quite an experience to go to a huge exhibition like India wood to see the most used material under so many categories, kinds, qualities. Also to be able to see the process of log cutting to made furniture was quite informative. The exhibition involved lot of wood related industries coming together and showcasing their products. The best part was that it wasn’t only wood but the machinery to etch, carve, turn, cut, paint, etc the wood. Different veneers, laminate, wall units, kitchen décor and fittings, modern day multipurpose furniture, etc everything was there under one roof.
Also different kinds of art work with wood, like artifacts, models, ships, tiles amongst other things constituted the wood exhibition. Among wood too, there were several hundred kinds of woods. American stalls itself had some 20 kinds of American wood.
Stona
This visit was similar. It was amazing to see the possibilities in what you can do with stones. From spheres to wall art, everything could be done. We also saw the water stone cutting machine, where the water pressure is so high that it cuts the stone. Also a huge cutting machine, with a big blade to slice large pieces of stones. There was display of different bathroom fittings, furniture, garden furniture, lifestyle products and even light fittings. Depending on the stone and finishing you want, there could be various kinds of products, all of which looks different.
Reva
It was exciting to go to a Car factory, but all the same a little disappointing also. I quite appreciate the fact the car is electric based, but the question which was coming up again was, how usage was electricity is being non-polluting. They did showed a version of solar charging panel, which dint seem convincing. I like the newer models, with a backup battery, chargeable through just via SMS. Also the look and the feel of the car was more sturdier than the original Reva.
We then saw how it is assembled. It has hardly got any engine, just a motor which runs on the battery. They have a frame for the whole car, which is supposed to be built in a way to be able to absorb shocks. The base of the car is nothing but a special ply from Gujarat and other components are stuck to it with glue. This is done to reduce weight and make it less bulky but in my opinion its making all the way more risky and vulnerable. Even the assembling part of the car, was done by hand by the workers. There was a lack of accuracy and finishing. It was very unlike how I would imagine a car factory to be.
