Fabindia
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| Private/Community owned | |
| Industry | Textiles, Home furnishings, handloom apparel, jewellery |
| Successor | William Bissell (Managing Director, 1999) |
| Founded | 1960 |
| Founder | John Bissell |
| Headquarters | New Delhi, India |
| Revenue | $65 million (2008) |
| Website | www.fabindia.com |
Fabindia (or Fabindia Overseas Pvt. Ltd.) is an Indian chain store retailing garments, furnishings, fabrics and ethnic products handmade by craftspeople across rural India. Established in 1960 by John Bissell, an American working for the Ford Foundation, New Delhi, Fabindia started out exporting home furnishings, before stepping into domestic retail in 1976, when it opened its first retail store in Greater Kailash, New Delhi. Today it has over 250 stores across India and abroad, and is managed by his son, William Bissell.
In 2008, Fabindia had a revenue of $65 million, a 30% increase from the previous year. Fabindia sources its product from across India through 17 community-owned companies; a certain percentage of the shares of which are held by artisans and craftpersons.
The products of Fabindia are mainly sourced from villages helping to provide and sustain rural employment in India. They are currently produced by over 40,000 artisans and craftspeople across India. The hand-crafted products also encourage good craftsmanship.
Fabindia was first started as a one-man export company of home furnishings, by John Bissell in 1960, in the two small rooms adjoining his bedroom in his Golf Links flat, as "Fabindia Inc.", as it was incorporated in Canton, Connecticut. He used his recently deceased grandmother's $20,000 legacy as start-up capital. Originally from Hartford, where his grandfather was the president of the Hartford Fire & Life Insurance Company, Bissell, was previously working as a buyer for Macy's, New York left his position and came to India in 1958, as a consultant for the Ford Foundation to advise the Government of India run Central Cottage Industries Corporation. He was given a two-year grant to instruct Indian villagers in making goods for export. He firmly believed in the emerging Indian textile industry and was determined to showcase Indian handloom textiles with a way to provide employment to traditional artisans. In 1964, Bissel met British designer Terence Conran, whose newly established home furnishing retail company Habitat, soon became one of their biggest customers. Meanwhile, it also established a distribution network in the United States, supplying their products to mom-and-pop stores. Through early years Bissell travelled across craft-based villages and town meeting weavers and entrepreneurs, swatches who would produce flat weaves, pale colors and precise weights in handloom yardage, in the end he homed in on one supplier, A. S. Khera, a dhurrie and home furnishing manufacturer in Panipat, thus by 1965 it had a turnover of Rs. 20 lakhs, though for the first time it moved into a proper office.
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