Fabindia- The Ethical Retailer from India

 According to Keller (1998), brand is a set of mental associations held by the consumer which adds to the perceived value of a product or service resulting in brand image. Fabindia is an ethical Indian retail brand founded in 1960 by John Bissell, an American who had come to India on a Ford Foundation Grant to advise the government about how to create market for the hand-looms of rural India (Vogue 2012).

Fabindia started with exporting the Indian hand-looms to retailers worldwide. Fabindia was a supplier of handmade textiles, wholesaling the produce of local weavers to retailers worldwide and served as middlemen to the hand-loom weavers of India. The brand ventured into retailing its products in Indian market in 1975. Fabindia works on a Community Owned Company model (COC). From the day of its inception it has catered to social entrepreneurship and is a for-profit company working with cooperative units, and small business units (SBU) who are the shareholders of the brand. Fabindia offers its Retail stores in various International places including UAE, Dubai, Bahrain, Italy and Rome.