Daiki Brands to focus on online retail in future

Daiki Brands is planning to emphasize on online retail to increase profitability in the coming years. The company is already selling two of its brands, the premium Peri Peri and mid-segment Biara online and has seen unprecedented sales. Last year, the company had a growth of 120 percent and the demand is growing, especially from Tier II and III consumers.

Geared up to match growing demand

Daiki has five factories, three in Mumbai, one in Sri Lanka and one in Tirupur from where it sources all its products. The company has complete control over the entire supply chain. Talking about their retail plans, Akshay Mahendran, MD, Daiki Brands says, “We have 2,000 to 2,500 MBOs pan India and are in 5 or 10 large formats. Our primary focus is online which gives 95 percent of our business. We are on every portal and our expansion plans will be on online retail,” says Mahendran. He points out growth is being seen in metros as well.

Mahendran explained that it was true that customers preferred the ‘touch, feel’ factor of brick and mortar stores, but they generally offered only four or five brands or products. Where as, online stores have a plethora of products and brands giving customers greater choice in design, price and fabrics. Admitting that a majority of women were still not entirely educated about the right fit, Mahendran says to usher in change would require time and a combined effort by top brands, such as Triumph, Amante and his own Peri Peri. “No single brand can make this happen. There has to be a combined effort of all brands put together, say by forming an association,” he explains.

Huge potential for growth

Mahendran says this category was currently in an embryonic stage and there is a huge potential for growth. Comparing the lingerie industry to FMCG, he says former is miniscule in size. Players are few and not established, especially when it comes to organized lingerie. Rural India is under the grip of unorganized, non-branded operators. Mahendran asserts Indian brands are good enough to take on global brands, but lack funding and attitude to invest in building capital. “It is only foreign brands, which bothered to build capital,” he adds.

Elaborating on his company’s approach to making products, Mahendran says it is vital for a brand to have its own USP. “An inner wear brand can build itself on communication and should have products differentiated from competitors. Our brand works heavily on R&D. We invest a lot on this. We have an in house team that does research on design. We do market surveys before we launch a product.”

Mahendran believes online retailers are more open to new products, styles and pricing. Whereas brick and mortar retailers choose to keep only what is regularly selling, refusing to experiment. “The products we developed after months of research did not find brick and mortar retailers ready to keep them, as they felt they would not sell. We put it online and it became a runaway bestseller,” sums up Mahendran.