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Q. What is the business model of your company?

A. Jaipur Rugs is a social business that connects rural craftsmanship with global markets through hand-made carpets. It is a family business based out of Jaipur that offers an exclusive range of hand-knotted andhand-woven rugs which are made using a traditional art form. The company currently has a network of over 40,000 artisans spread across 600 rural Indian villages in five states of India. It has an end-to-end business model, right from the sourcing of wool to exporting finished handmade rugs.

Q. How is Jaipur Rugs different from its competitors?

A. Jaipur Rugs makes one of the finest modern hand knotted collection in the world, using silk and wool. Some of the rugs can have anywhere between two million to 10 million knots. The weaver is at the forefront of our design and business philosophy and we do everything to make their voices heard. A buyer can directly get in touch with the weaver of the carpet and know first-hand what went into making his carpet. This level of transparency is unheard of anywhere else in the industry.

Q. How is the rural sector benefitting through your company?

A. Jaipur Rugs envisions a society where equality, justice and peace prevail through socio-economic development. Its key aim is to provide opportunities for all, with the insurgent mission to serve as a social innovator promoting the cause of artisans (especially women) by providing them with job opportunities resulting in an uplifted rural society. It is a social enterprise that has worked towards eliminating the middlemen and towards ensuring fair wages for artisans. For the first time in their lives, women are now financially empowered and also improving the lives of their families. Jaipur Rugs has also started a creative social experiment – the Artisan Original initiative. This initiative has been introduced by us to tap into the untamed fashion from the villages of India.

Q. How do you plan to expand your market?

A. After establishing itself in the B2B space, Jaipur Rugs is expanding its presence in the B2C segment. The organisation has always endeavoured to improve the working conditions of its artisans and maintain a directand permanent connection with these holders of the age-old savoir-faire. By being in the B2C space, Jaipur Rugs has the opportunity toconnect the grassroots with the urban consumer and help in protectingthis age old art form from withering away.

Q. What are the challenges faced by the company and how do you overcome them?

A. On the customer front, one of the biggest challenges is educatingthe customer. To overcome that, we are working on a guidebook for architects and interior designers, which will be a ready reference for allof their carpet related queries. Our aim is to make our customersunderstand the complex art of making handmade carpets and changetheir perception about the value of hand-knotted carpets. We try to convert this challenge into an opportunity by providing better qualityrugs that last longer and by connecting the buyer with the artisan togive the buyer an authentic experience.

Q. How do you ensure to keep the ethics of the company intact while targeting domestic and international markets?

A. Jaipur Rugs combines the pursuit of profit with spreading kindness in a way that benefits all its stakeholders that include the consumers and their families, the artisans and their families, the suppliers, the buyers and channels we work with and their employees. These values have been set by our founder Nand Kishore Chaudhary.

— As told by Yogesh Chaudhary, Director, Jaipur Rugs to BE’s Ankit Singh