Tantuja in crisis, to shut 10 showrooms

Kolkata: At a time when garment retail is performing better than other segments in the organised retail industry, West Bengal State Handloom Weavers' Cooperative Society Ltd, popularly known as Tantuja, has decided to shut down 10 showrooms. Six of them will be closed by the end of this month.

The 56-year-old weavers' cooperative has 131 branches in West Bengal at present. It has already closed down six showrooms in last three years. Number of employees has also come down to 948 in 2007-08 from 1,025 in 2004-05.

According to sources, six of the showrooms including the ones at prime locations in Kolkata like New Alipore, Fulbagan and Hazra will be closed down this month. Sources said that Tantuja has to pay a rent of Rs 250-500 per month for each of those premises.

The society was set up to uplift the handloom weavers of the state and their craftsmanship. But the ground reality is somewhat different, as it procures around 2.5% of the total produce in the handloom sector of the state.

After Tantusree, yet another public sector undertaking created to uplift handloom weavers in the state, was closed down, Tantuja had a larger customer base. But Tantuja, according to the suggestions of PricewaterhouseCoopers- the agency which did a report on the restructuring of the cooperative, lacks operational flexibilities. While organisations like Fab India, APCO and Shoppers Stop adopted flexible and contemporary practices, non-adherence of practices like market-linked salaries, flexible selling practices continue to impact Tantuja, PwC observed.

On top of the lack of flexible approach, several government departments are yet to pay back their dues to the society. According to the minutes of the managing committee meeting on February 12 this year, the amount due in several government departments is around Rs 12 crore, almost equal to the organisation's sales for a year.

A closer look at Tantuja's accounts reveal that the cooperative has been able to increase sales by almost Rs 8.72 crore during the first 10 months of 2009-10 and its gross profit has increased by Rs 1.77 crore over the corresponding period last fiscal. But it has to bear a loss of Rs 5.93 crore for the first 10 months owing to arrears of the employee wages.