Ahmedabad to Morbi. On both sides of the road, tiles and ceramic sanitary products are visible as far as the eye can see. Thousands, lakhs of these products are lying on the ground.
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I am going to meet Bindiya Mehta and know her story. Bindiya runs a company named ‘Tilescraft’. His office is a few kilometers away from Morbi city.
Bindiya says, ‘Initially when I started this work, people did not believe that a girl could work in the tiles industry. Can build a business. Whoever came would say – Where is the master of this company?
You don’t feel that way, do you?
I also laugh along with Bindiya.
The founder of Tilescraft is Bindiya Mehta. She says that mostly men work in this industry.
Bindiya is showing me her entire office. His father is also there with him.
She says, ‘Ours has been a family business of tiles, but I am doing business with a different trend.’
trend?
‘Today everything is reaching our homes, but no one had explored tiles online till now.
This is what we are doing. Anyone can order tiles through our platform. However, this is an industry of liking by touch and sight. Therefore, we have prepared a catalog regarding feel and touch.
Samples of original tiles are attached. For those who want to place an order, we first send them samples, then the product is dispatched as per the order.
Bindiya is showing catalog samples prepared from different categories of tiles. She sends it to the client as a sample before ordering.
Just like we order any goods or book from e-commerce platform, can we order tiles also?
‘No, no, it is not possible right now. Now one cannot deliver just one or two or ten tiles. We take orders in bulk. Then it is sent to the client with the help of transportation.
Earlier, a full truck had to be sent to one location because it was more expensive. Now we dispatch tiles route wise to different clients in one location.
Bindiya tells about her early days. She says, ‘It is about 1970-80. At that time, tiles factory had started being set up in Morbi. When grandfather could not think of any other work, he started making tiles.
Earlier cement tiles were made by hand. It took too much time. Then gradually the whole of Morbi became a hub of tiles and ceramic products. The age of machines has arrived. Tiles started being made by machine.
Earlier cement tiles were made. It was made manually. Then it started being made by machine. There is one machine die for one size of tiles.
Showing some tiles, Bindiya says, ‘When the demand for hand-made cement tiles started decreasing and wages started increasing, Dada stopped this work. After that he thought of selling the tiles being made by the machine through distributorship.
Later father joined this business. I don’t have any brothers or sisters. There was no facility of higher education in Morbi. People here either go to Rajkot or Ahmedabad to study.
I went to Ahmedabad after 12th. My family members used to say from the beginning that I am a girl, so I cannot enter this industry. However, there was also a question in front of father that who would handle the family business.
Some people also used to say that what next…?
Bindiya is accompanied by her father Atul Mehta. Atul had joined his father’s business. He has been in the tiles industry for 40 years.
Showing some old photographs, Bindiya says, ‘After completing my studies from Ahmedabad, I got placed in a multinational company. Worked there for one and a half year.
I had field work. Here today, there tomorrow. There were problems because of being a woman. Where to stay, what to eat… all these things. When it came to promotion, the company asked for out-of-station transfer.
My family members did not agree to this. I also had to face problems in my job. Finally, in 2020-21, she left her job and came to her home in Morbi.
Now sitting at home every day was difficult for me. Started visiting his tiles store with father. Gradually I started understanding things about tiles.
I remember – when people used to come to meet my father in the office and I used to stay there, they could not even make eye contact and talk. In the end I had to go to another cabin.
Different machines are used to make tiles in different sizes.
Then?
‘I had planned that I would do only tiles business. I started exploring online to see if there were any companies selling tiles online. I did not see any such player.
After that I started online tiles business. Created a website with the help of a friend. Now the times are such that we want to see the picture of how the house will look after installing tiles or ceramics. What will that look like?
I took care of all these things. It was started with about Rs 2.5 lakh. The first project worth Rs 33 thousand was received from Ahmedabad itself. When people started liking the work, they started giving projects.
Today I have worked with around 100 clients.
Bindiya with her team. The head office of Bindiya’s company Tilescraft is in Ahmedabad. She dispatches the product from Morbi.
Bindiya is remembering an incident. She says, ‘We dispatch the products from the manufacturing unit as per the order. A client’s order was to be delivered. The truck driver called with the address.
When I picked up the phone, he thought that some woman had picked up the phone by mistake. The phone was disconnected as soon as I heard the voice. However, now slowly things have started changing. Acceptance has started coming among the people.
Initially the family members were a little hesitant, but now they have full support. Currently we are doing a business of about Rs 1 crore annually. There is a team of more than 10 people.
Bindiya says that now the tiles industry is gradually changing. Many categories have come in this also. Tiles like Vitrified, Porcelain Cement, Wall Body, Ceramic Decorative, Spartak Full Body Vitrified, Double Charge Vitrified are in demand in the market.
