With the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (Fifa) World Cup round the corner, the Jalandhar football industry is witnessing a brisk business, courtesy the unorganised domestic and foreign market. The sports manufacturing houses are meeting the deadlines ahead of the World Cup as the demand is more than the supply.
While the soccer mania for the football industry began around October last year, the peak business period has started from March and would continue till May end. In fact football manufacturers feel that the soccer mania in the country may continue post Fifa World Cup.
And this international football season is all the more special as it has a first to its credit. It is for the first time that the Jalandhar soccer industry has switched over to machine stitched footballs. Earlier, the soccer industry was dependent on the hand stitched footballs.
However, the last couple of years saw a shift towards this trend.
Managing Director of Freewill Sports (NIVIA) - a sports goods manufacturing unit, Rajesh Kharbanda said some of the leading sporting houses joined hands with United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (Unido) to revitalise the industry.
“We held a training programme to learn the art of stitching footballs through machines and installed a locally available machine for this purpose,” he added.
“This time the volume of order is much high, for which retail chains have played a key role”, Kharbanda said adding that actual promotional campaign would start in June and it will last till September.
For export months of April and March are the peak months and more than half of the orders received were already dispatched, he revealed claiming that in India he real season would begin in May and last up to September.
“Domestic demand has surged not less than 50 per cent, but in the world market the demand has increased more than 70 per cent,” Kharbanda said.
Further elaborating the overall scene of the football manufacturing houses, he said, “The industry is upbeat as the organised retail sectors have virtually taken over the domestic market leading to brisk business. It is owing to good business that the domestic demand is no less than 50 per cent and the sales are growing,” said Kharbanda.
The football industry has introduced promotional range of world cup country footballs, shin guards and football studs to meet the demands of the domestic market. “Retail houses like Big Bazaar, HyperCITY, Aditya Birla, Bharti Walmart, Spencer are leading the domestic market. And we have introduced special range of promotional country footballs and other products,” he added.
Director Exports of Brightway Exports International, Jiten Mahajan, who was the first exporter from India to supply footballs to world renowned Manchester United Football Club, said, “The big chain stores in India has led to a flourishing business with bigger volumes. A major reason behind soccer craze in India is due to media and sports channels which have hooked the youth towards this game”, he added.
Mahajan was the first exporter in India who had set up a special football-stitching centre in the city for Manchester United. The stitching centre was inaugurated by director of the club, P Harverson on January 25, 2001.
Among the foreign market footballs are being exported to market giants like Castrol, Pepsi, Cadbury, Philips, Samsung to name a few. “In the foreign market it is China which is ruling the roost with approximately 90 per cent share whereas India has a share of 5 per cent,” said Manish Mahajan, an exporter of sports goods from Hans Raj Mahajan Worldwide.
The hi-tech technology coupled with a wider range of production is the major reason behind China leading the international market, added Kharbanda. “Moreover China has mastered the art of machine stitched footballs whereas we have just started”, he quipped.
However, the manufacturers and exporters rued the acute shortage of labour in the industry. “Labour shortage has been a major cause of concern for the industry. A major reason behind this trend is the upcoming sports industry at Meerut (UP) as well. Labourers who earlier use to work here now prefer to shift their base to their homeland UP. Moreover, with market trend shifting towards machine stitched footballs the labour has to pick up fast to move ahead,” added another exporter.
