027. Gauri Sharma & Anant Ahuja: On the Past, Present & Future of Shahi Exports

This is part one of a conversation with Anant Ahuja and Gauri Sharma of Shahi exports, one of India’s largest garment manufacturers. We get into how, why, and when Shahi exports started taking on more and more of the production processes… from spinning yarn, to making fabric, to cutting and sewing garments for export, to logistics and design. And what does this mean for where they see Shahi’s future? Will they start selling direct to consumers someday too?

This takes us into familiar territory, supplier leadership within the sustainability agenda. It’s a topic we also covered in episodes 14 and 15 when we chatted to Ariel Muller and Martin Su. Anant and Gauri share what they perceive to be the barriers to suppliers taking a leadership role within sustainability, and how they tackled these within Shahi. The result? Some pretty innovative social initiatives with a pretty attractive return on investment.

Want to dig deeper ?

Find out more about Shahi Exports, Good Business Lab, and the P.A.C.E. program.

Though we didn’t have a chance to talk about it in the interview, we’ve done our fair share of fan girl-ing over another project Gauri co-founded: SUSS. It’s a community and movement to drive conversations, build collaborations, and inspire action on sustainable fashion in India.

We loved this interview with Christian Smith about why brands favor conversations on environmental sustainability over social sustainability.

Did you know that major fashion brands make up a relatively small percentage of global market share?

McKinsey’s Fashion on Climate.

Find out more about the quota system and the Multi Fiber Arrangement.