Cool Colors ushers in comfort and design, aims high with linen shirts

Bangalore-based Bafna Clothing, the parent company of Cool Colors, has been making shirts since 2002. Shirts are one of their largest selling segment, one that is forever growing. Cool Colors offers both cotton and linen shirts and emphasises on value for money. The company’s turnover this year has been Rs 80 crores and it is optimistic that the same growth tempo would continue in the next fiscal too.

Cool Colors has a good range of shirts with the right finish and fit. The cotton shirts are full sleeved while linen category has two segments – cotton in linen and 100 per cent linen. The ratio of cotton shirts to linen is 75:25.

Bringing in festivities, colour and cheer

India has two season for shirts: one is the festive and the other is the marriage. Summer is known as the wedding season while winter is the festive season. The festive season lasts from Ramzan to Christmas. Shirts are a product of the festive season more than they are of winter. That’s why Cool Colors use a variety of bright colours for their shirts. Black is strictly a no-no.

Linen is a cool fabric

More than before, linen is an acceptable fabric today. Earlier linen was seen as a khadi product which needed a lot of maintenance, and so it was avoided. And Praveen Mutha, CMD, Cool Colors is a big supporter of linen fabrics. He believes that once a person wears linen, he cannot wear any other fabric. He credits Birla’s for making people aware of the comfort of the fabric. Today, he says, linen is a 365 days fabric.

Bafna Clothing has 1,200 MBOs, four EBOs and two large format stores, Reliance Trends and Brand Factory. The EBOs are in Vijayawada, Vishakhapatnam and Madurai. The MBOs are all over India and cover 16 states. The brand is also available online through e-tailer sites such as Amazon, Flipkart and its own website. As Mutha says, “E-commerce is here to stay. And it will grow. So I have to have a line for e-commerce and have to ensure I am in as many sites as possible. But the main challenge is for MBOs. They have to change strategies.”

Bafna Clothing has been in this segment since 1979. Earlier they were doing bottoms and in 2002 they diversified into shirts. The company employs 700 people, has three factories and 350 machines to manufacture shirts. It produces 1,25,000 shirt pieces a month.