Just a two-year old brand, Juelle, from the house of Turbo Retail has already succeeded in carving a niche for itself in the top-wear segment. Achieving a turnover of Rs 18 crores last fiscal, the company is now looking at 20 to 25 per cent growth this year.
Elaborating on Juelle’s retail footprint, director & creative director duo, Guneet Singh and Japneet Singh say, “This year, we have reached about 1,200 MBOs. This will soon become 1,500 MBOs. Among large formats, we are with Reliance Trends and Maya and are planning to add Shoppers Stop and Pantaloons by this winter. This summer we ventured into Maharashtra and by Diwali, we hope to enter Gujarat.”
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with increased retail footprint, Juelle also plans to add to its product portfolio and lounge wear is being added to its existing top-wear line. “This will be track suits, long pants, full sleeve T-shirts and hoodies. It’s going to be a combination of fleece and French terry. Some portion of it will be heavy sinker and slightly heavy VSM fabrics for tops. Hoodies will be of fleece. Now we are an almost complete upper wear category. With lounge wear we have entered bottom wear. With bottom wear, we plan do casuals like shorts and denim,” Singh says.
Commenting on the status of knitwear segment in India, they opine that probably because they are from Ludhiana, they feel knitwear is the easiest way to start a brand. “The share of knitwear in the total apparel industry is 30 to 35 per cent but the segment is about 70 per cent unorganized. The share of Tier II and III cities has increased. These cities are not as backward and slow as they were. Awareness levels have improved and customers from Tier IV cities come up and ask for my T-shirts, something that amazes us.”
However, they feel the segment is facing several roadblocks “Government policies, excise duty, cotton price fluctuations, are issues that need to be tackled to create a competitive environment. Keeping in mind that the younger generation has taken to knits in a big way, the segment is definitely evolving,” they add.
