Company: Welspun Living
Title: Chief Executive Officer & Managing Director
Industry: Home equipment/furnishings
Hometown:Â Jaipur, India
Notable in 2023: Advanced innovation, sustainability, and gender parity while reaching the $1 billion revenue milestone.
As companies around the world look to diversify supply chains away from China post-Covid, and due to the rising tensions between the world's manufacturing leader and the West, India looms large in new strategies.
That places Welspun Living – an India-based home textiles giant which makes bed, bath and flooring products – in a good position to capitalize. Dipali Goenka is leading the way for a company whose products are sold at retailers including Walmart, Ikea, Costco, Kohl's, Lowe's, Macy's and Home Depot, as well as through deals with many major hotel chains.
A 25-year business veteran who attended Harvard, Goenka has already guided Welspun to become one of the world's largest home textile businesses, with products sold in over 50 countries, and $1 billion in revenue and $110 million in EBITDA reached in its fiscal 2023, according to the company – despite a home furnishings market that plunged after the Covid housing boom and goods buying frenzy ended.
Under her leadership, Welspun Living has been striking new deals to increase its market share in the home furnishings space. Last year, Welspun inked a deal with Martha Stewart to produce for her brand. Early this year, Welspun and Disney signed an agreement for kids' home furnishing in the UK and European market.
"China became more and more difficult to do business in," Stewart told the Financial Times during a factory tour of her sole Indian supplier, Welspun Living, last November. "And India is an extraordinary country . . . this is a nice fit."
A Martha Stewart brand store went live on Amazon last February.
I married at 18, had two daughters, and faced inquiries about the succession of my husband's business. It was then that I decided to open the doors for my daughters by entering the business myself. At the time, they were 7 and 10 years old, and although my husband supported me, he made it clear that success wouldn't come easily.Dipali GoenkaChief Executive Officer & Managing Director, Welspun Living
Headquartered in Mumbai, Welspun began as a small textiles company in 1985 with one location and has grown into a global conglomerate Welspun World, which in addition to its home textile business, has companies in the metals, infrastructure and warehousing industries. The conglomerate's 30,000-plus employees work in over 50 countries with manufacturing facilities located in India, the U.S., and Saudi Arabia. Goenka has been instrumental in efforts that boosted the proportion of women employees at Welspun from 7% to 25%.
The home furnishings company is also eying India as a key consumer market in the future to rival its export strength, with significant efforts over the past year to increase brand awareness in India across over 11,000 retail stores in most major cities and towns, and plans to further expand to 50,000 retail locations in India by 2026.
When she first went to work for the home textiles company originally started by her husband, lack of belief in her business abilities stung, she told Indian publication Outlook Business in an interview. "But my resolve to work hard and to see that I can deliver was very strong."
Over the years, she has helped to raise the workforce of the company to nearly one-quarter female, an accomplishment that has a broad impact on Welspun's culture and success. "IQ is not the only thing that will take an organization forward. It is also the EQ. And that's the balance women bring," Goenka said in the Outlook Business interview.
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