The warp & weft of Gokaldas

BANGALORE: The three Hinduja brothers — Madanlal, Rajendra and Dinesh — who spearhead India’s largest apparel exporter, Gokaldas Exports (GEL), founded the company in 1979. The sons of late Jhamandas Hinduja, who was a silk trader, has also seen the youngest generation joining GEL.

The eldest of the three, Madanlal Hinduja — a commerce graduate from Bangalore University — heads Gokaldas Exports as the chairman and managing director.

The line operations are split between Rajendra Hinduja, who looks after finance and administration, while their youngest brother Dinesh Hinduja is in charge of production and marketing. Rajendra has studied in BMS College of Engineering while Dinesh is a science graduate from Bangalore University.

Till recently, all units of Gokaldas Exports were based in Bangalore. It has now spread its wings by opening units in Tumkur, Chennai, Mysore and Hyderabad.

On their part, the Hinduja brothers believe that the apparel business plays a role in the upliftment of the society as it provides employment to thousands of semi-literate women. At last count, there were around 3,00,000 such women who are employed not only by Gokaldas, but also by several other such units in Bangalore alone.

The Hindujas are credited with bringing in major innovation into the area of apparel exports. These include the assembly-line production system as compared to the erstwhile piece-rate system. The fourth brother, Jagdish Hinduja, an MBA from Jamnalal Bajaj, has his own apparel exporting firm Gokaldas Images, also based in Bangalore.