Teesort optimistic about closing at Rs 100 crores this year

Online fashion brand Teesort has had a good run so far and is now looking at closing at Rs 100 crores this fiscal. It is confident of an annual gross profit margin of 40 per cent. It is also in talks with Amazon to launch in the US and UK markets apart from a launch in West Asia. This year it will diversify into women and kids’ wear.

The brand, started by Alok and Atul Agarwal, sells casual menswear under labels Teesort and TSX through 15 online sites including its own. It is India’s only profitable online fashion brand which has not taken a single penny from investors. Its direct competitor Yepme registered a loss of Rs 103 crores in 2014-15. As Alok Agarwal points out, the traditional business model and conventional approach to build the brand worked in Teesort’s favour. Also, while other companies looked at acquiring new customers, Teesort concentrated on selling more to existing customers. The brothers first concentrated on vertical integration of manufacturing, branding and distribution of menswear. What this did was to help the firm dominate a category and source high volume products at low cost. As a result, every single transaction brought some profit margin.

The first order came from a student in AIIMS and the brothers packed and delivered it themselves. In the initial days they themselves delivered the order so that they could get customer feedback. Alok worked as an assistant director-corporate customer service delivery at Delhi-based telecom operator MTS group. Atul worked as an IT analyst with TCS in France where the technical back-end was laid. Later, he quit his job and returned to India to focus totally on Teesort. The brothers put in all their savings, around Rs 50 lakh into the company.