Bonjour, Vami emerge strong players across India

Popular socks brand Bonjour from Zonac Clothing Machines was registered way back in 1989. The company also supplies Lycra-blend yarns under ‘Sogo’ and has a separate brand called Yami offering only leggings. “The initial aim was to make machines. Then we started making socks with new fabrics and yarns. We can probably say that Bonjour developed the socks industry in India,” opines Anusha Jain, Key Facilitator, New Initiatives, Bonjour Group.

Exclusive product collections

While the company caters to men, women and children with Bonjour, Sogo Fashions was added as a vertical integration to socks by processing yarns in house in 2000. And then four years back, the company started making leggings under Vami. “We are a core socks brand. We have a premium range called Signature. Men’s socks are our best sellers and makes up 50 percent while women and children are 30 and 20 percent respectively. Our socks have anti-bacterial features with soft cushioning and are skin-friendly,” explains Jain.

For winter, the brand is using unique yarns like organic bamboo cotton yarn, which will keep the feet warm. Besides woollen socks, Bonjour introduced acrylic yarns and new prints. “These will be softer, finer than before. We have a category called ‘Be Bold’. This focuses on young consumers. For children, we have skin-friendly socks that don’t cause rashes. We use licensed cartoon characters like Doremon, Barbie and Hot Wheels and a variety of other designs,” Jain says.

Since the company was finding it difficult to get the right yarns for its socks range, it partnered with Lycra to create yarns in-house. “We blended Lycra with other yarns for making socks. We started selling Lycra blended yarns to brands and that became a separate business. Last year, we added in house dyeing of special yarns. This is also under Sogo. From Sogo, we use a lot of yarns for making socks. But we sell 50 percent of the yarns in the market,” informs R K Jain, MD, BonjourGroup.

Vami was launched under Sogo and the company has the capacity of producing 3,000 leggings per day. “We will take that number to 5,000 pieces soon. We have leggings in 85 colours that are traditional Indian shades. We have also introduced neon colours. We have ankle length leggings and capris. There is a whole generation of women ready to shift from traditional woven churidars to leggings. We are the only brand selling Lycra blended leggings in India,” states Jain.

Retail expansion

The company sells through 8,000 points of sale across India. “We have 10 EBOs all in Delhi NCR. One more is coming up in Noida. We are present in two or three large formats with our brand name and in some large formats as a private label. We are trying to capture Tier III cities. Initially, we won’t go there with the Signature range but eventually it will follow,” says Jain.

Bonjour collection is available online with major platforms, however, the company keeps strict check on discounts and maintains same prices for Bonjour online and offline. Vami is with 2,500 MBOs. “We sell leggings in Delhi NCR, Haryana, Bihar, MP, UP. We are in Mumbai, Gujarat. This market is growing rapidly. We have 60 distributors covering 60 cities. These are mostly in Delhi and north India. Shortly we will expand elsewhere.”

“So far no international brand has come to India as a core socks category. And the brands that are in India are either from the sports category or from a formal clothing background. And by the time a specialist international brand comes in,Bonjour would have already created a space for itself in the consumer’s mind,” Jain sums up.