FIFA World Cup: Jalandhar's sports industry gets bulk orders

The FIFA World Cup has come as boon for Jalandhar's sports industry as goods makers here have received bulk orders, making about 10 lakh promotional soccer balls for exporting to various countries.
Due to rising demand from overseas and domestic market owing to the mega-event, sports goods makers are expecting 30-40 per cent jump in soccer balls sales this season.
A Jalandhar-based sports goods maker, Rattan Brothers, exported 80,000 promotional balls through a FIFA approved OEM player to Brazil, where the sporting event is to be held starting tonight.
"We have supplied 80,000 soccer balls through FIFA approved OEM player," Rattan Brothers, Director, Tilak Khinder told PTI today.

The company has also shipped over two lakh footballs to countries including Australia, France, England, Hungry and New Zealand.
Another sports goods maker, Nivia Sports, is also expecting a big jump in sales.

"There is a spurt in demand for soccer balls because of FIFA World Cup which generated a lot of orders. Within next two months, we will be gaining from the (FIFA) World Cup. The jump in our sales will be between 30 and 40 per cent as against sales of previous year," Nivia Sports MD Rajesh Kharbanda said.
Kharbanda further said e-commerce portals like Amazon and Flipcart have placed big orders for balls.

"There is also great demand for balls this time from smaller cities like tier-II and tier III. Moreover, big retail shops are also buying balls," he said.
A few sports goods makers here, who faced stiff competition from China and Pakistan while bagging orders, produced balls by using imported machinery.
"Instead of making hand-stitched balls, this time we imported machinery and produced mechanically stitched soccer balls which helped us keep up mthe pace with orders," said Khinder.