The Inside Story: Dvine pushes up its production target

A leading manufacturer of foam cups that go into padded brassieres, Romance has risen to the challenge of growing demand of the product in the last few years. Its lingerie brand, Dvine, deals only in foam cups that are used in all padded bras made in the country. Also, a manufacturer of padded bras, it makes 15,000 pieces per day and is now looking at producing 2 lakh pieces per day within a year.

V K Bajaj, Proprietor, Romance explains “Earlier, Indian women didn’t go for padded bras but with the entry of global brands, padded bras became fashionable and hence Indian manufacturers too started making them. As a result, demand for foam cups became urgent. That’s when Dvine decided to manufacture the raw material needed for the foam cups in India itself.” In a tie-up with a reputed company, it has been producing the foam in the country itself.

Indian versus Chinese products

Indian lingerie manufacturers mostly offer cotton or hosiery products. But when global brands hit the Indian market, lingerie started being available in other fabric. Also, the influx of Chinese products too brought in synthetic material. But the quality of Chinese products as compared to that of Indian is far superior. Even if Indian products use synthetic material, a feel of cotton is always provided. Bajaj says, “The prices we offer are very competitive. Our quality and price is much better than that of China. There is a huge difference between the Indian and the Chinese product. The quality of the material used in the Indian product is much better that that of China as the Chinese product is made of 100 per cent synthetic material.”

Lingerie, a booming market

Innerwear retail in India is pegged at Rs 18,000 crores and is expected to grow at CAGR of 13 per cent. Innerwear has been greatly influenced by fashion and for youngsters today, it is a style statement. For the last three years, the 26-year-old company has been manufacturing padded bras. In fact, it is the pioneer of fancy bras in the north India market. The brand takes the credit for having introduced padded and T-shirt bra in this market. They have even been awarded the State Export Award for two consecutive years. As Bajaj says, “We started with 18 machines today we have around 60 machines and hope to expand it to 200 machines in the next few months.” This is definitely a sign of the increasing demand and the growing market.

Bajaj points out, “The product is made to suit all types of woman and their attire. Today, most women like wearing T-shirts and our product compliments that. We supply to almost all top brands in India and also plan to export after some time. There is no competition as competition is based on quality and there is no one to compete with us in quality.”