Classic Polo rests faith in knitwear, targets 100 per cent growth this fiscal

Homegrown lifestyle brand, known for its knits, Classic Polo has been at the forefront of fashion in India. Out with its new Autumn/Winter ’16 collection, the brand is looking at 100 per cent growth this fiscal as compared to other years. It is confident of achieving this as it has done in-depth research on design, quality and price which cannot be matched by any competitor. With its USP in knits, Classic Polo has planned a lot more in the fashion category that will set them apart from the rest.

For the Autumn/Winter 16 collection, two themes have been introduced: Illusion and Offbeat. Here the collection takes a fresh look at this season’s colour ranges and highlights the most important tones to focus on.

Casual keeps smart people happy

Today, the trend is towards causal dressing. The concept of pure formals has shrunk per sale. Customers now look for a hint of a casual even in formal wear collections. Knitwear is a clear casual segment which is gaining momentum in terms of business growth, and more importantly, many big players have jumped into this segment, thus making it clear that the future is huge. Casual dressing is becoming a culture of its own and this is helping the segment to grow. Tees, loungewear, winter wear, leisure and active wear all fall in the casual category. Even knitwear is a declared casual package and customers prefer it because of comfort and style.

Knitwear growing fast

Knits market has been growing at a decent pace for the past three-five years. The fact that it is growing and has huge potential is evident because big brands are constantly widening their knits collection. Knits is a Rs 4,000 crores plus market with few branded players. However, now brands have taken this business seriously and even unorganised sector is also taking full advantage of this situation.

And as Usha Periyasamy, DDirector, Brands and Operations explains, “Knits production is more complicated than shirt. Any tailor can stitch a shirt but tees production is technically superior and exclusive. Yarn to garmenting takes a sweet 90 days and best speed can be 60-75 days which is what classic polo is doing because of the vertical intergration and in-house infrastructure advantage.”

Classic Polo is available in all formats. It is present in 81 EBOs, 5,000 MBOs and 175 LFS. It is also available online through Flipkart, Paytm, Amazon and Snapdeal. The brand is easily available across Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab and Haryana and Rajasthan, and other parts of the country. The brand also sells overseas in Nepal, Dubai and Singapore.

Periyasamy is optimistic about the future of knitwear. As she says, “Transformation is happening from the customer side and it is positive. Lot of innovations are happening in terms of fabric, styling, functional aspects of the garments, cuts and innovation, fit experiments and so on.”