Bafna looking north for business expansion

Bafna Clothing that had started off with in 1979 with the production of shorts and half pants has now converted into three brands viz. Walker Jeans, Cool Colors and I-Blues. The three brands are creating a niche in denims and casuals space.

Achieving Rs 70 crores turnover this year, the company has big plans of adding a T-shirt line and getting into online retailing. Earlier, the company only concentrated on the southern markets but now it plans to retail pan-India. In fact, the collections are already available in UP, MP and Orissa.

“We are thinking of expanding our factory and R&D section in the south since to enhance our productivity. We are adding 100 machines. From the current count of 1,200 pieces a day, we want to target producing 2,200 pieces in a year,” explains Praveen Mutha, MD, Bafna Clothing Company. The collections comprise of denims and casuals in the price range of Rs 795 to Rs 1095 for all three brands. Mutha says, “Cool Colors has a sports and regular collection comprising of trousers, basic denims, basic shirts and semi casuals. I-Blues is semi casual to core casual. We are now thinking of adding jogging shorts and night shorts in the I-Blues range.”

Bafna Clothing has a remarkable presence through MBOs. Walker is in more than 600 MBOs, Cool Colors in 800 and the five exclusive outlets are in Bangalore, Salem, Chennai, Madurai and Vishakhapatnam. “I-Blues is only in the south, since it is core casuals so the production is limited and we can’t go beyond Andhra, Tamil Nadu and Kerala with this collection. Cool Colors is available in Rajasthan, Assam, Punjab and Chandigarh, where Walker is not present. The EBOs stock all three brands and there is no EBO devoted to just one brand. These are all franchisees,” opines Mutha.

The plan is to open 10 more outlets in the south. In Andhra Pradesh they want to add stores at Hyderabad, Vijayawada and Thirupati; in Tamil Nadu new stores will come up in Trichy and Coimbatore; and in Kerala they are looking at Kochi, Trivandrum and Calicut. They are present in large stores like Chennai Silks, Sarunas, Sarathas, CMR Group, RS Group and Kala Niketan.

With smaller cities gaining momentum, demand for jeans is growing phenomenally. “This is one of the reasons we are entering e-commerce because people in metros can go to malls but in smaller towns where will denim buyers go? They can shop online,” opines Mutha.

He feels the fashion sense in India is changing and consumers are readily accepting changes. “The challenge is to be ready with presentations. It’s not enough to make minor changes to what you did last season. You have to start afresh each time,” he concludes.