Kuntal Raj Jain, Duke: ‘We will be close to Rs 350 cr up from Rs 320 cr last year’

Backed by a strong pan-India network of 400 showrooms and 3,000 MBOs, ready to wear brand Duke will soon be celebrating 50th anniversary of being in the business. Kuntal Raj Jain, Director of Duke shares his thoughts on the company’s successful journey so far and his vision for the future growth.

Could you tell us about Duke’s journey so far?

My father started the business in 1966 and the journey began with the production of around few hundreds pieces of knitwear which included thermals, T-shirts and some other categories, sold through the local market. In 1980, we launched Duke and have seen about 20 to 25 percent growth every year since then.

I joined the business in 2003, and same year unveiled a collection of jackets with great success. Thereafter, almost every year we introduced a new category. Today, we make denims, shirts, trousers, jackets, sweaters and T-shirts across all genders. Fashion has evolved drastically over the decades driven by Bollywood and festivals.

Tell us more about the product range.

Duke is known for its value for money products. Apart from the core categories, we also offer T-shirts for golf players, which is a personalised collection. Then we have a label called ‘Duke Game’, which is sportswear or gym wear line. Our portfolio also consists of active wear, regular wear, party wear, winter wear including sweatshirts, tracksuits, sweaters and jackets. For sweaters we use 100 percent wool, blended wool, cotton and especially developed yarn which gives shine to a wool.

For T-shirts, we use velvet- cotton, 100 percent cotton, combed mercerized cotton and double mercerized T-shirts for girls. Recently we also started making Linen T-shirts. We have also expanded our offerings and launched footwear recently as a part of our product expansion strategy.

Tell us about the new linen T-shirts.

We developed it recently but are yet to introduce in the market. It will be there by next summer because at the moment we are concentrating more on winter wear. Around January we will start working on our summer range.

What is Duke offering for winter?

Last two-three years, winter is delayed and shrinking. This scenario has brought in a complete change in our winter offerings. We believe basics sell and fashion is limited to pre-winter. As it does not snow here, we do a lot of basics and then we do a casual range that can be worn anytime, anywhere.

How do you foresee this winter’s business?

We have set up plans for our success story. So, our dealers and marketing network have shown tremendous support. We did not face problems of inventory with dealers. Challenges are there but we try to work around them by controlling our production and maintaining the right balance between demand and supply.

Why do you think the women’s category is not picking up?

There are two major factors. One, because we are more focused on men’s wear line .Secondly, a lot of products from China and Thailand are sold here at cheap rates and they are more fashionable than what is manufactured and retailed here. Competing with them is not possible because the fabrics and styling available in these countries are not possible in India at the moment. We don’t have that much volume to be profitable.

Tell us about Duke’s retail presence

We are present in almost all stores whether it is Reliance, Lifestyle or Shoppers Stop. No doubt large format stores are also booming at the moment but we are focusing on online retailing. We are retailing on our own website and on third party platforms such as Myntra, Amazon, Flipkart, eBay. At the moment online is a challenge to us, in terms of pricing because of huge discounts but soon we may create a different range for online.

How is your business divided among these retail channels?

For us, our MBO business is top priority because we have been doing for 30 to 35 years with a lot more success. We believe MBOs in India will survive throughout whether EBOs or online channels come and go. The relationship which the customer has with the store owner is something which lasts forever.

Online you cannot feel the product and unsure about sharing your card details. Our business percentage from MBOs is around 60-65 percent. EBOs, shop in shops and stores make up 25 percent and the balance is from LFS and online. LFS is about 10 percent and 5 percent would be online.

How many production facilities do you have?

We diversified into retailing and development of brand about 10 years back. We have three factories dedicated to manufacturing and employ about 1,200 work force since he last 10 years. We have not increased our manufacturing since we realized the value of the brand and retailing. Now we have about 200 vendors working for us and have stringent quality control and other logistic setup to look after these 200 vendors. We believe that manufacturing and retailing do not go hand in hand.

What turnover growth are you expecting by March 2016?

Turnover wise, we will be close to Rs 350 cores up from Rs 320 crores reported last year. This year there are many challenges and we have not set higher targets and set a goal that is achievable. We expect the footwear category to do well.

Do you have plans for any other category in the 50th year?

We might be starting accessories now. So we will be doing some sling bags, shoulder bags may be brooches and eye wear.