About Us — Surplus Fabrics
From a College Shirt to India's Trusted Surplus Fabric Store
Every great fabric has a story, and so does every great fabric business. Ours began not in a factory or a boardroom, but in a college hostel with a friend, a very expensive printed shirt, and a question that changed everything.
Our Story
It started with a simple observation. A close college friend showed up wearing a printed shirt that had clearly cost him a small fortune. Something about the print and the fabric felt familiar like I had seen it somewhere before. At the time, I barely understood fabric sourcing. But that weekend, a visit to our father's shop connected the dots.
What I discovered changed the direction of our lives. Our father had been sourcing something extraordinary for years: genuine surplus fabric leftover stock from the production runs of major European clothing brands. The same premium material used in costly, branded garments was sitting right there in his shop, at a fraction of the price, simply because it was surplus. That expensive shirt our friend wore wasn't made from anything special, it was made from the exact kind of fabric I had access to all along.
That realization became the foundation of Maa Ambay Fabrics (Now Surplus Fabric). In the months that followed, I made a deliberate choice to move away from sourcing surplus from Indian brands and focus entirely on authentic export surplus fabric from established European labels; the kind of quality that speaks for itself. I began helping out at the shop through college, learning the business from the ground up.
Then COVID happened, and like many small businesses, ours came to a standstill.
Rebuilding meant starting over carefully. I took up a full-time job as a software engineer and waited, quite literally, for our third salary slip so I could qualify for a business loan. In 2020, that loan became the seed capital to restart the business, this time as a true partner to our father, while still working full-time in tech to support the relaunch.
The comeback began on Instagram posting available stock, one photo at a time, and directing interested buyers to a website domain I had registered back in 2021. In its earliest form, that website was nothing more than a digital visiting card: a catalogue, an address, and a phone number. By 2022, it had grown into a complete e-commerce store, and we've been selling surplus fabric online ever since to customers across India and, today, in countries as far as Australia, the UK, Canada, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Portugal, France and more.
What Makes Us Different
Genuine Export Surplus, Backed by Proof
Every fabric I sell is authentic export surplus, and I stand behind that claim with brand proofs and invoices — not just promises. When I say it's surplus from a European brand's production run, I can show you the paperwork to prove it.
A Real Team, Not a Chatbot
Before I ever built a physical store, I built a customer service team. Today, 18 people work behind the scenes purely to support our customers — helping them choose the right fabric, answering questions, and resolving issues, every single day.
30-Day Returns, COD, and Doorstep Pickup
Offer a full 30-day return and exchange window, cash on delivery, and — for customers within India — arrange return pickup directly from your doorstep. Buying fabric online means you can't feel it in your hands first, so I make the safety net as strong as possible.
Trusted Across Borders
What started as an Instagram page is now a fabric brand shipping internationally, with customers in Australia, the UK, Canada, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Portugal, and France.
Our Mission
To provide the best-in-class fabric shopping experience — combining genuine quality, wide variety, and affordable pricing — while doing our part for the planet by giving surplus and leftover fabric a second life instead of letting it go to waste.
Our Vision
To build a fully automated fabric fulfillment system — one where the moment a customer places an order, our systems begin processing it within 30 minutes, complete with real-time tracking. Our goal is simple: to become the fastest, most reliable fabric provider a customer can order from, anywhere.
Our Values
Buying fabric online is hard. You can't touch it, feel its weight, or check its texture before you buy — you have to trust us to get it right. That trust is something I take seriously, and it shapes every decision I make.
If something goes wrong with an order — even if it wasn't our mistake, and even if it's well past our 30-day return window — I still make it right. I would rather absorb a loss than let a customer walk away feeling let down. As I often say internally: "Customer se toh baad mein kama bhi lenge, lekin customer tootna nahi chahiye" — I can always earn from a customer later, but I can never afford to lose their trust.
Selling fabric online is genuinely difficult. Earning — and keeping — our customers' confidence is what makes it possible.
