Cool Colors strides ahead with its innovative shirts collection

Bangalore -based Bafna Clothing Company’s shirts brand Cool Colors has carved a niche for itself with its good quality and innovative designs. Now out with its Autum/Winter 2016 collection, Cool Colors is looking at consolidating its position as the first choice for shirts.

For the new season, the main colours dark and mélange shades. There is a bit of brushing. The fabric is grindel. Generally, Cool Colors uses 40s cotton, 50s cotton and 60s cotton. More horizontal stripes are used as they work. In solids there are some 20 core products, core products are something that is supplied 365 days. Cool Colors’ core product is purely solids. So, there are 20 designs and each design consists of 20 colors. Of the 1,25,000 shirt pieces sold a month, 30,000 pieces are solids.

Cool, comfortable linen is most happening

Praveen Mutha, CMD says linen has become a 365-day product. “It is not confined to summer or winter only. Linen is getting accepted. Earlier linen was seen as a khadi product which needed a lot of maintenance, which is true. So, people avoided linen. But over the years linen has become popular, a lot of credit for it goes to Birla Linen. They made people understand what linen is all about. Those who wear linen once, don’t go back to cotton or polyester or poly viscose.”

Shirts maketh a man

The Indian shirt industry is doing very well. At least two shirts are bought with every trouser. And basic casuals, which Cool Colors makes are top sellers. Shirts whether formal, casual or basic casual have an equal share. Casuals are about fashion. Basic casuals or semi casuals come between casuals and formals. Formals are purely office wear. “Over the years, the industry has shifted from formals to semi casuals. Everyone wants to look young. And basic casuals can go just about anywhere. That’s why this segment has grown. Bafna Clothing has three factories for shirts, housing 350 machines and employing 700 people,” he says.

Bafna Clothing Company has 1,200 MBOs, four EBOs and two large format stores (Reliance, Brand Factory). The EBOs are in Vijayawada, Vishakapatnam and Madurai. Madurai has two. The MBOs are all over India and cover 16 states. Cool Colors is also available on Amazon and Flipkart, and soon it will be on Myntra. Plans are afoot to have the company’s own website, as e-commerce is here to stay. And it will grow. Muthasays, “I have to have a line for e-commerce and I have to ensure that I am in as many sites as possible. But the main challenge is for MBOs. They have to change strategies.”

Bafna Clothing Company is this segment since 1979. Earlier, they were doing only bottoms but in 2002 ventured into shirts. The company also makes trousers which are outsourced. This year Bafna’s turnover was Rs 80 crores.