KNIT PRO IN INDIA
The inside story of the needle brand’s community work
IF YOU are a knitter or crocheter, the chances are that you have a KnitPro knitting needle, hook or accessory in your project bag. KnitPro has swept the globe since its launch ten years ago, but there is so much more to the brand than its high-quality products. At its heart is an inclusive, philanthropic ethos that drives the business.
KnitPro is part of a family-run company with a factory in Jaipur in Rajasthan, India, a wonderful city that is more than a thousand years old and is well known for its historic forts. It is also famous for its handicrafts, and its talented workers who pass their skills down from generation to generation - the ideal workforce for KnitPro.
In 1988 the group that owns KnitPro started a company to make high-end paint brushes for artists. They manufacture up to 2.5 million brushes each month, turning quality wood and assembling a number of components. “One day, while visiting a customer, a representative from the brush company noticed a display of knitting needles and this set him thinking. The basic skills for making brushes and knitting needles are very similar - and so KnitPro was born,” explains Shirish Jain, Vice President of Marketing at KnitPro.
The first two ranges, launched at the beginning of 2009, were Nova, and the much-loved Symfonie needles. Jain continues: “At the time there weren’t any high-quality wooden needle brands in Europe, so Symfonie, with its iconic design, became an instant hit.”
Craftsmanship
The birch wood for the Symfonie and now other ranges comes from Finland and Estonia. The sheets are impregnated with coloured resin using a very skilled process involving high pressure and baking to make a strong substrate that is unique.
The wood is then carefully machined by KnitPro’s experienced staff into dowels which are then turned and finished, before the nickel-free metallic components are
glued on by hand. At each stage there are rigorous quality control procedures to ensure that any faulty products can be identified and rejected. So much confidence does the brand have in its products that it offers a lifetime guarantee on its needles and hooks.
Currently KnitPro products are available in 70 countries, and the portfolio has expanded to include ranges for all tastes. The brand has been widely credited with transforming the image of knitting needles with its stylish, high-quality tools.
The KnitPro knitting needle range is the largest in the world, but the brand doesn’t rest on its laurels. “Our product development team is always looking at different materials, and talking to knitters and crocheters around the world. We try to anticipate customer needs and adapt to the changing retail makeup,” says Jain.
Empowering women
The KnitPro factory employs around 900 people, and nearly 400 of them are women – a much higher proportion than in most businesses in India, of which the company is extremely proud. “We believe that empowering women can have a profound effect on their communities,” says Jain. “We are a relatively small business, but the small changes we can make have an important impact.”
KnitPro’s determination to effect changes extends to its recruitment policies. Any woman who turns up at their factory asking for a job is given one. Just think about that for a moment: every woman. More than that, KnitPro provides them all with transport to and from work for free, so that they don’t have to negotiate the perils of public transport.
This care for their staff extends to the men who work at the factory. When they join KnitPro, each of them is given a bicycle so they can get to work, no matter how remote their homes are. There is also a free crèche at the factory and a medical centre to make life a little better for the staff. “We believe that looking after our workers shows our loyalty to them and means that they will take pride in the products they are making,” explains Jain.
Education matters
KnitPro also funds a school in a remote village. At the turn of this century, the Jain family which owns KnitPro were looking for a community project to fund. They noticed one of their workers was a bit down. He was worried about his two children, he explained, because they had no access to education - there weren’t even proper roads to his village. Jain takes up the story: “Education is such an important opportunity for children and can fundamentally change communities, so we travelled to his village to find out more and speak to the elders.”
KnitPro hadn’t run a school before, but was passionate about education, and the team worked with the villagers to find out how they could help. Jain explains: “They gave us space in their community centre and we found the teachers. It wasn’t easy, but it is part of our commitment to the people who work with us.”
The school opened with just 10 pupils, but today there are more than 900 from the age of three to 17 years old. “In our country, girls will often finish their education at the age of 13 so they can help in the home. So we worked hard to encourage the community to allow their daughters to stay until they graduated at 17. Our team worked with parents, and we had meetings with villagers and volunteers, so the families could understand the benefits of an extended education for girls.
“When I ask our staff what they would like knitters to take from our brand, they want KnitPro to delight its users. We want our brand to be what happiness looks and feels like, and we are proud of what we have achieved so far,” says Jain. – Read more about KnitPro’s story, discover its products and find stockists at www.knitpro.eu