Dipali Goenka

About

When U.S. tariff headwinds pushed Welspun Living’s Q3 FY26 consolidated revenues down 9.9% year-on-year to ₹2,277 crore, most people interpreted it as a firm caught flat-footed. But Dipali Goenka, MD and CEO, reads it differently. “Everybody is struggling,” she says. “It’s not just us, even our customers and partners. It’s an opportunity for all of us to work together.” The U.S. still accounts for nearly 65% of Welspun Living’s revenues. The company has commenced commercial production at its new $13 million pillow manufacturing facility in Nevada this year, following an Ohio facility that went live in August 2024. The Nevada plant has a capacity of 10.8 million pillows annually and is set to generate $50 million in revenue at full utilisation. The logic is simple: bulky products like pillows need to be manufactured close to the customer. Parallelly, the company has expanded its presence across more than 60 countries, increasing Goenka’s hedge. Beyond pillows, Welspun has been foraying into advanced textiles, supplying technical fabric components for winter jackets and outdoor apparel to lifestyle and sportswear brands. “We continue to reinvent and recreate products,” Goenka says. “From jackets to medical—we think this could become another huge opportunity.” Amongst its premium offerings, Christy, the British luxury home textile brand, has become both a growth driver and a strategic asset. The brand, which made its first towel for the Queen of England in 1850, posted a 31% YoY revenue growth in Q3 FY26. At home, Goenka is betting on two things: the Welspun and Spaces brands capturing India’s next consumption wave—religious tourism, which, she says, is creating incremental demand for institutional home textiles—hotel linen, commercial bedding. “You have to continue to pivot and re-pivot,” she says—putting resilience and adaptability as core to navigating a rapidly shifting global market.