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Sri Lankan local industries specifically in Northern and Eastern areas were badly affected by the
decade lasted internal civil war from 1983 to 2009. Handloom industry is one of the few
industries in the Eastern Province that survived and thrived amidst intense hostilities existed
while many collapsed. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how and why this handloom
industry survived and what strategies helped the industry in the Eastern Province to overcome
unfriendly market conditions.
This case research used a mixed research methodology. Primary data was gathered from 32
handloom company owners and 105 individual weavers using unstructured questionnaires and
data was analysed both qualitatively and quantitatively .
The study found that cluster formation, participatory process adopted by weavers and marketing
strategies unique to Eastern Province community had significantly helped the handloom industry
to survive., product diversification and creative designs are found to be key growth factors of the
industry even in a market where intense hostilities and unfriendly market conditions exist.
Research findings and recommendations would provide some underpinning reasons and guidance
for handloom and similar industry entrepreneurs to survive and grow in hostile and entrepreneur
unfriendly market conditions.
