It's the beginning of the rainy season and the first thing that comes to mind is an umbrella. Gone are the days when there existed only one kind of umbrella, which was long and black with a wooden handle. Old timers in the city can still be spotted with the curved handle of these umbrellas tucked behind their collars. They have now been replaced by umbrellas, which are compact and colourful. Nowadays the trend has changed and one can get a variety of umbrellas in the market. To get the latest and fashionable umbrellas visit The Popular Umbrella Mfg. Co. at Mamulpet near Avenue Road.

A family run business, it was started 50 years ago by Mr. Chatrabhuj B. Shah, which has passed on to the next generation. They deal in wholesale as well as retail sales of umbrellas.

They stock different types of umbrellas like - long, folding, threefold, golf, beach, garden, and fancy that are of both manual opening and button type. The button type is widely used and is presently in great demand. There is also a newly introduced button type umbrella with a torch incorporated.

Folding and threefold umbrellas are compact and the most fashionable in today's market. They come in single as well as multicolours and have exquisite designs printed on them.


The beach and the garden umbrellas are bigger in size and are fixed to the ground wherein people can relax under it. It is usually used at roof gardens, beaches, resorts, for advertisements, etc. Many of these umbrellas have a special silver coating from inside, which is sun and rain proof, and is long lasting

The business is at its peak from mid-April to December and there is a lull during off-season. At this time they concentrate on the production side.

"We survey the market and study the latest fashion and accordingly design the umbrellas. People nowadays prefer having bright colourful designs on the umbrellas," says Mr. Kiran Shah, Proprietor.

The trend has changed from cotton to nylon and they use 100 per cent nylon cloth imported from Taiwan in making these umbrellas..

The prices of umbrellas range from Rs 50 to Rs 300.

They have customers throughout South India. "We have customers from rural areas who still prefer the black umbrellas with wooden handles," says Kiran.

They also do servicing and deal in spare parts of umbrellas.

Address:
The Popular Umbrella Mfg. Co.
No. 101, Mamulpet,
Bangalore - 560 053
Tel: 080 2225 2452.

|