ALAPPUZHA: The heavy summer showers have given a boost to the umbrella business in Alappuzha which is the home of two giant umbrella marts, Popy and John’s. Together they share about 95 percent of the Rs 150-crore market in the state, where some 1.5 crore umbrellas are sold every year.
There are ten major and minor manufacturers in the state and each of them would sell over 2,00,000 pieces per day. During the three-month peak monsoon season (June–August), the companies spend huge amounts on advertising alone.
Mr T.V. Scaria, a manufacturer in the town, said, “more varieties of umbrellas have flooded the markets. We have some 200 varieties. We do a lot of the innovations ourselves, but we also consult experts in places like Taiwan. Now the trend is for small and automatic umbrellas with several folds,” he said.
A traditional family, the Thayyils, has dominated the local umbrella industry. Two grandsons of Thayyil Abraham Varghese, who founded the St George Umbrella Mart in 1954, branched out in 1995. Davis Thayyil formed Popy and his cousin Joseph Thayyil created John’s.
According to a case study titled ‘Popy Umbrella Mart— a case of organisational excellence in SMEs’ by P.A. Job, Associate Professor, Cochin University of Science and Technology, about 8,900 distributors sell the product. The competition between the two cousins has since opened up a world of choices for Kerala’s consumers.
Mr Rajsekhar Padmanabhan, another manufacturer, said that last year they had introduced 150 varieties of umbrellas. The price ranged from Rs 150 to Rs 1,000, he said.
Mr Y.M. Hussain, a customer in the town, expressed happiness over the colourful umbrellas available with even cartoon characters printed on them. “I have bought two varieties of umbrellas for my kid,” he added.
