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About GARD

The GARD Bags brand represents an absolute commitment to quality and value. Further, it represents an unwavering fidelity to the promise of exceptional safety, comfort and style. This can be seen across our full lineup of protective bags, cases, wheelies, and accessories, designed for brass, woodwind and other instruments.

Gard Bags
Talwar is led by President and CEO Vijay Talwar (center), Vice President and COO Abhi Chakrabarti (left), and Director and CFO Pooja Talwar Chakrabarti.

GARD Bags is an important and thriving segment of the Talwar company (Talwar Brothers Pvt. Ltd), a family business, now in our third generation. Our R&D and Design center, our state-of-the-art production facilities, and our management operations are centered in Kolkata, situated on the eastern coast of India.

A Brief History

Balraj Talwar migrated to Kolkata in 1943 after the partition of India. He borrowed money to start a business in timber that was in short supply after World War II. As the business grew, he enlisted his brothers to help him manage it, and Talwar Brothers was officially launched in 1948.

Fourteen years later, Balraj’s eldest son, Vijay Talwar, enrolled at the University of Hamburg, Germany, eventually earning a Master’s degree in wood technology to help grow the business. He returned to India in 1967 and guided Talwar Brothers to become the first company to export ebony from India using his newly acquired technical knowledge.

In the early 90s, recorder maker Moeck Blockfloetenbau und Verlag, a longtime Talwar ebony customer, asked Vijay to make a cotton bag for its recorders. One year and 178 samples later, Moeck submitted an order, and Talwar Brothers had made its first foray into musical instrument bags.

After exhibiting recorder bags at the Frankfurt Musikmesse, the company was approached by Normans Musical Instruments in the U.K. to make bags for its brass and woodwind instruments. Talwar’s GARD Bags was born in 1995, with its logo—a mother kangaroo with a baby in her pouch—representing how GARD bags protect the instrument with the same care that a mother gives her child.

In the decades since then, GARD has emerged as one of the most respected brands in its class. We are proud of the trust we have earned from working musicians on every continent, who cradle their prized instruments in a GARD Bag.

Experience the perfect harmony of safety, style, and comfort with GARD bags.

Executive Team

ABHI CHAKRABARTI

Vice President & COO Talwar Brothers (P) Ltd.

MBA in Hotel and Business Management, Cornell University, USA
In-charge - Marketing and Sales

POOJA TALWAR CHAKRABARTI

Director Talwar Brothers (P) Ltd.

Woodwind instrument Maker (Germany and Switzerland)
In-charge - Finance, Bags and Wheelies

VIJAY TALWAR

Managing Director Talwar Brothers (P) Ltd.

Masters in Wood Science and Technology, Hamburg University Germany
Overall in-charge, especially wood products.

MEMBERSHIP AFFILIATIONS

Professional Affiliations & Memberships

The company is a member and affiliate of the following organizations / societies:

Recognised star export house by the Government of India

The Indo German Chamber Of Commerce

NAMM – National Association of Musical Merchants

VSA – The Violin Society Of America

MDA – Music Distributors Association

ITG–International Trumpet Guild

Capexil – Chemicals & Allied Products Export Promotion Council, India

Texprocil – The Cotton Textile Export Promotion Council Of India

The Cotton Textiles Export Promotion Council, Mumbai

The Synthetic & Rayon Export Promotion Council, Mumbai

Council For Leather Exports, Chennai

The Handicrafts Export Promotion Council, New Delhi

The Eastern India Shippers Association, Calcutta

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