Overall buoyancy propels brands to up production and retail expansion

After the new NDA government led by Narendra Modi took charge at the Centre, there has been an overall positivity among the businesses. Now with the ‘Make in India’ initiative, the efforts are moving towards promoting textiles manufactured in India in the Western world. No wonder players are geared up to increase production while firming up their retail and overseas expansion plans.

As ‘Brand India’ emerges strong, numerous mid and small manufacturers are putting in efforts to create a strong foothold in the domestic as well as international markets.

Promoting ‘Brand India’ in the global market

As the western markets, especially the USA is emphasizing upon manufacturing closer to home concept to save costs and promote home-grown companies, even India seems to be following the suit. The new government’s emphasis on ‘Make in India’ is leading medium and small apparel brands to look forward to steady and encouraging growth in the coming years. The idea of increasing exports and reducing imports seems to be catching the attention of domestic apparel and textile manufacturers.

As Sanjay Chauhan, Director, Aebee, says, “In totality, smart growth is what the industry is looking for. We are planning exports overseas as sale of our products is increasing in domestic market.” And the growth is not just being witnessed by the western wear players but also ethnic wear manufacturers. Affirms Rajesh Dedhia, Managing Director of Apple Plus, saying, “We are ready to launch our ethnic wear line by next winter. We see immense possibilities in this segment. We are also hopeful about robust growth in coming years.”

New retail plans and products to fuel growth

Many domestic apparel brands are also planning overseas expansion and some of them a bit aggressively. For instance, Blazo finds conditions favourable, as Director Niyam asserts, “Previous year was not good and we witnessed 10 to 12 percent growth. But this year, we are targeting a 20 percent growth as pricing, colours and fabrication playing a crucial role. We are following aggressive expansion policy on both the fronts, domestic and overseas. The business prospects in 2015 appear great as clouds of uncertainty are thinning day by day.”

Taking into account the encouraging results of last financial year, Rajesh Gala, Director of Boom Jeans, expresses optimism about the next season. On the basis of ever rising crowd in business centres, many players in garment manufacturing sector have started increasing their product lines. As Saumar J Sharma, Head of Business, Camaro, states, “Our brand is expecting 20 to 25 percent growth this year too. Increasing visibility in existing MBOs is prime focus of the brand. Apart from this, the roadmap is also ready to increase EBO count to 10 by 2016.”

Many global brands are now outsourcing their material from India which has also added fuel to the growth engine. Mukesh Baid, Partner of Gusto, reveals, “As proposal related to export and exclusive retail is already in place, the company is aiming to scale up production capacity by 20 percent this year with the inclusion of new products in the same segment.”

Besides targeting the Western clients, some Indian companies are also looking for Non Resident Indians as their potential customers. For NRIs many domestic products are rolling out exclusive premium ranges. “The ethnic wear segment holds infinite opportunities for us to grow, so the focus is now on scaling up operations. We have built good reputation over the years and intend to take a notch higher in coming years,” adds Nitin Shah, Managing Director of Hansi.

Summing up the winds of hope, Rishi Chhabria, Director (Marketing), T-Base, says that he expects to witness 15 to 20 percent growth this year, so they plan to launch an online portal as well as EBOs. Overall, the industry seems to be optimistic about the way forward despite low consumer sentiment and ecommerce challenge.