T T hopes to grow 20 per cent in forthcoming fiscal

For a brand which has been synonymous with innerwear for long, it is a major achievement for TT to be now known as a complete family brand now. Founded in 1970 primarily as men’s innerwear brand, TT has been successfully bringing the best for its customers. This has given it the confidence to expect a 20 per cent growth in the forthcoming fiscal.

Ready with its Autumn/Winter '16 collection, TT’s collection is in keeping with the latest trends worldwide. The colours are more vibrant and cheerful for the gloomy and cold winter months. Also, the high GSM fleece fabric has more or less given way to the lower GSM and more trendy thermals, and this is reflected in their product range.

Knitwear grows, changing preferences

Sanjay K Jain, Managing Director points out “Knitwear industry is a growing market with 50 per cent market share. It is expected to grow 10-15 per cent. T T, which makes mostly knitted wear for the family, has seen this market grow manifold. In fact, Tirupur, one of India’s major knitwear manufacturing hubs where T T manufactures its garments, has set a target of reaching Rs 1 lakh crore turnover by 2020. Knitwear exports from Tirupur increased to Rs 20,730 crores in FY14-15 from Rs 18,000 crores in FY13-14. And by FY16-17, knitwear exports is expected to reach Rs 36,000 crores.” Jains feels, a major growth factor has been the replacement of salwars and churidars with leggings in womenswear.”

Online, offline retail to co-exist

Jain believes both offline and online retail can co-exist. He says ease of comfort and growth of organised brands would surely help online business because people are more confident of buying known brands. T T’s e-tailing business contributes around 0.5 per cent but they have a target of 1 per cent by the end of the year and 3 per cent in next two years.

Jain says, “Non-brands are slowly losing their share to brands in the market. This process is expected to continue so the concept of branding cannot be ignored by low value players either.” He further says that the entry of international players has affected knitwear category in the premium segment. “Consumers prefer to buy foreign brands even if local brands offer better value for money. This advantage will stay till Indian brands’ mental make-up of service consistency and detailing doesn’t improve drastically.

T T has about 50,000 outlets across the country. MBOs have more than 75 per cent share while the rest is taken up by EBOs and LFS. It is non-metros which see maximum sale of T T products.