18 Fire on a growth spree through large format stores

“Festive season always hold great prospects for the garment industry. It was quite good for our brand,” says Rakesh Morvadiya, partner Leela Apparels, makers of the brand 18 Fire, adding, “We have introduced some new elements in our product basket and expect the new launch to

bring in good sales.”

Expecting a growth level of 60-70 percent year-on-year the brand is exploring large formats for retail expansion apart from boosting exports.

Increasing

18 Fire’s points of sale

The brand is present all across India in 1,200 MBOs. “We are catering to big individual MBOs like C&M, Ritu Wears Biglife, Pothy’s, Chennai Silk and Kalyan Sarees. Our next target is to spread nationally by tapping the big large format stores. In the next 5-6 months, we will start with one or two big players,” explains Morvadiya.

The brand also gets orders from overseas buyers. “We have covered the full Asian market. We are a typical Indian ethnic wear, so we enjoy popularity where Indians are based across the globe,” he adds.

The collection is also available on company’s website as well as other platforms like Jabong, Myntra and Flipkart. “Our main focus will be to increase our production capacity to cater to the rising demand. At present, our capacity is 22,000 pieces per month. We are slowly increasing it. Meanwhile, we are going to establish a new unit in Gujarat in the coming year,” elaborates Morvadiya.

Growth through women’s wear

18 Fire manufactures kurtis which are priced between Rs 1,200 and goes up to Rs 5,000 and salwar kameez begin from Rs 3,500 and goes till Rs 15,000. “We have added the salwar-kameez range last season and are expecting good growth in this category,” states Morvadiya.

Explaining further on the brand’s USP, he says, “We are known as trendsetters in the market. Nearly 70 percent of the raw material which is fabrics, is being sourced from overseas markets. We have given digital prints, new fabrics in chiffon, crepes and georgette. We try to give wearable fashion to our customers.”