As top stars descend on the courts of All England Lawn Tennis Club to vie for the Wimbledon Championship, Indians have a thing to cheer as the towels used in the tournament by the likes of Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal or Maria Sharapova will also be available in the country from next year.
Mumbai-headquartered diversified group Welspun, which is supplying the Christy towels for the third year running from India, has been given permission to retail it in the country by the Wimbledon organisers.
"There is good news for the Indian (tennis) fans as well because from next year onwards the towels will be available in India. The agreement to this effect has been reached with AELTC (All England Lawn Tennis Club) after immense persuasion with the authorities," Welspun Chairman BK Goenka told PTI.
Apart from being used by the players, the Christy towel will be available in all the shops at the Wimbledon site during the event.
"For the rest of the year, the towels are available in the Museum shop which is open to the visitors all the year round. It can also be purchased on-line in the UK from the Wimbledon shop," Goenka said.
For this year's tournament which begins today and ends on July 8 in London, Welspun is supplying over a lakh Christy towels.
"Every year the quantities keep on growing based on the demand. It may be noted that Christy towels is the second largest selling item during the tournament after McDonalds Burger," he said.
For Wimbledon Championship 2011, the company had shipped 92,493 pieces of towels.
Welspun had acquired CHT Holdings Ltd, the holding company of the Britain's leading towel brand, Christy, in 2006.
"This is the first change in many years wherein the Wimbledon logo has been recreated (in the towel). The towel has been designed by Welspuns' UK design studio," Goenka said.
The towels have already been manufactured and majority portion of the quantity have been shipped from the Vapi (Gujarat) factory of Welspun India Ltd, the official said.
