Gujarat wipes away Wimbledon sweat n toil

AHMEDABAD: The iconic made-in-Gujarat Wimbledon towels are selling like hot cakes as the Grand Slam celebrates its 125th anniversary this year. Welspun India Ltd (WIL), which manufactures Wimbledon's most popular souvenir at its plant in Vapi, exported over one lakh pieces this year — an increase of about 30% as compared to previous year.
The company is in the process of sending one more shipment to meet the growing demand.The limited edition towel would be the same one as used on court by the likes of Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer and Andy Murray. "This is for the first time organisers have demanded more towels midway through the tournament. We are in the process of sending the third shipment of 20,000 towels to meet fresh demand," Swapan Nath, director WIL.
Last year was the first time in the history of Wimbledon that towels were manufactured outside the UK. For over 35 years, the towels were supplied to All England Lawn Tennis Club (AELTC), organisers of the championship, by a Manchester-based company, Christy. As Welspun group acquired Christy in 2006 and shifted manufacturing to its facilities at Anjar in Kutch and Vapi in Valsad, automatically towels are manufactured in South Gujarat.
Traditionally, the towel's design changes every three years. And, the company will launch new design in 2013. Men's towels are always in the iconic club colours of dark green and purple, enhanced by gold. "The colours of ladies' towel change every year – Last year they were pink, blue and vanilla. For 2011, light green colour replaced vanilla. Even colour of design has also changed," he said.
The towels, sold inside Wimbledon complex, were the largest selling line in terms of volume and value. Each player is lent two towels for every match — around 5,000 towels over the fortnight-long tournament.