My friend Edward Oakley, who has died aged 78, headed Obeetee, India’s leading carpet and rug company. His family had a long connection with India, having first established their hand-knotted carpet business in the 19th century, in Mirzapur, a town (now a city) on the banks of the Ganges in the state of Uttar Pradesh.
However it was Edward who modernised the operation of the company by erecting a mechanical dye plant and centralising the finishing and packing. He insisted on the highest quality and concentrated on foreign markets. From 1969, his company was the country’s largest exporter of rugs and carpets to the US and Europe.
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