Reliance Retail to launch dedicated artisan-only store format ‘Swadesh’
By Retail4Growth Bureau | April 22, 2022
Reliance Retail has announced that as part of its plans to boost its ‘Handmade in India’ programme, it will launch a dedicated artisan-only store format, ‘Swadesh’ to showcase artisanal products including agriculture & food products, handlooms, clothing, textiles, handicrafts & handmade natural products.
In a strong boost to its ‘Handmade in India' programme, Reliance Retail has announced that it is embarking on several new initiatives aimed at showcasing authentic handcrafted products and promoting the rich Indian art forms globally. The initiatives are designed to help revive various traditional Indian art and craft forms, provide sustainable livelihood for hundreds and thousands of artisans and craftsmen in the ecosystem and present a new platform to take the timeless Indian crafts to consumer across the world, said the company statement.
The programme is being spearheaded by Reliance Retail’s handicrafts brand Swadesh, which envisages an artisan-only dedicated store format for Handcrafted products from across the country. The first Swadesh store is expected to open in the second half of the current year and will house a wide range of products including handmade textiles, handicrafts, agriculture products and other artisanal merchandise sourced directly from artisans. Swadesh will also build a global marketplace to connect Indian artisans and sellers of authentic handmade products to consumers across the world.
“The future of Indian arts and crafts is poised at an exciting stage. Our past efforts towards development of a robust infrastructure towards reviving dying art forms and building and enabling ecosystem for local artisans, weavers and craftsmen have yielded encouraging results. Our standalone handicrafts destination store format, Swadesh is now on the anvil and will present India through its Art and Crafts and it will showcase everything from Apparel, Home Textiles, Home décor, Furniture, Jewellery, Wellness products and more,” says Isha Ambani, Director, Reliance Retail Ventures Ltd.
“We see a great opportunity for the artisans of our country in co-creating and co curating handcrafted Indian products for the world. To realise this opportunity Reliance Retail is partnering with various government organizations to help popularize various local art forms, both nationally and globally. Reliance Retail and Reliance Foundation have also aligned to identify core epicenters for the various indigenous crafts and will set up RiSE centres, a robust network of skill development centres to ensure reach at grassroots level and to contribute in sustaining artisan communities & art forms,” added Isha Ambani.