Jewel in the Crown: Brand Juelle bets big on knitwear

Turbo Retail, the parent company of brand Juelle, is concentrating on expanding its MBOs in the domestic markets and EBOs in the export market. It is also focusing on knitwear collections for women.

The knits portfolio is relatively big, especially the women’s segment. It is not just confined to T-shirts the range also includes sweaters, sweatshirts, cardigans, printed tunics and flat knitted dresses. The segment is growing and the total share of T-shirts and other segments is balanced, though it is tough to define the exact share of T-shirts in the category.

Premium brands don’t have an edge

Guneet Singh, Director, Juelle believes premium brands don’t have an edge over mass brands because the latter have huge volumes. Besides, they experiment more with fashion. While premium brands have more basic products in its portfolio, middle or upper middle brands are believe more in trying new trends and concepts. This way they can serve the market better.

Sweatshirt a big seller

With winter becoming less harsh, the market has seen sweatshirts emerge as a major segment. Women customers prefer lightweight sweatshirts rather than heavy bulky sweaters. Juelle has kept this in mind and brought out more trendy sweatshirts in their forthcoming winter collection.

Singh says, “Knits category is very important in the women’s wear segment. It holds a lot of potential and is growing, changing its shape. We need to focus and introduce newer styles so that this segment retains its presence.” Japneet Singh, Director adds, “We are concentrating on knitwear segment in a big way by introducing new blends of cotton, viscose, Lycra. We are also trying fancy yarns, like slubs and nets and other kinds of premium mix and match. We will be concentrating more on sweatshirts portfolio for forthcoming winter season, including light weight sweaters. The Indigo concept is in in a big way. We are trying with indigo fabrics for sweatshirts as well as indigo yarns for the sweaters range. We are also playing with mix and match of various washed concepts, pre washed garments to be included in our collection this time.

From when it started in 2009-10, Juelle has concentrated on MBOs. About 90-95 per cent focus is on MBOs. Today, Juelle is present in around 2,000 MBOs throughout India, in all metros, class I, II, and III cities. Recently, the company opened three new EBOs in the UAE and is now concentrating on EBOs for the export market.