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All You Need To Know About Wimbeldon Towels

Dipali Goenka, Managing Director, Welspun Global Brands Limited speaks to Avril-Ann Braganza about the manufacturing of the iconic Wimbledon towels

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These towels have kissed the faces of Andy Murray, Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and many more Wimbledon stars. It is said that every third towel used by the players on court during the Wimbledon championship, is generally kept by them or thrown into the viewing audience as a souvenir. Every year, Welspun India Limited produces over 100,000 towels for the championships, the majority of which are sold during the tournament fortnight. These 100% cotton towels are soft, absorbent and machine washable. Let’s look at where and how these prestigious towels are manufactured.

Dipali Goenka, also the Executive Director, Welspun India Ltd. tells us that the company acquired Christy, the British towel manufacturer, in 2006 and shifted its towel manufacturing base from Hyde, Greater Manchester to Vapi, Gujarat in 2010. Since then the Vapi plant has been dedicated to the production of Wimbledon towels. From sourcing to manufacturing, production takes place wholly in India.

The towels are yarn dyed woven jacquards, which means that the yarn is dyed with individual colours prior to weaving. The jacquard looms used allow all of the design elements to be woven into the towels. Once woven, the towels undergo several washing and finishing processes to enhance their softness and performance. The towels, which are allowed to condition without the aid of any artificial procedures, are sewn and inspected to meet strict quality-control procedures. They are then individually packed into bespoke Wimbledon bags. While, the men’s towels are always produced in the classic green and purple colourway with gold lettering, this year the ladies’ towels are hot-pink and charcoal with highlights of chartreuse green, following a new fashion statement colourway.

They are produced in the finest combed, two-fold cotton construction (or 2 ply). The grade of cotton used results in a very soft and absorbent finish and the construction enhances the definition of its design elements. The thread count of these towels is 500 gsm (grammes per square metre). The design and product development teams work 12 months in advance and guess what? The 2016 collection is already ready to go into production!

The Championships towels are believed to be the fastest selling products during the tournament and have become an iconic ‘must have’ souvenir of the event. They retail for £29 in the UK and `1,295 in India.

 

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