Bonjour: To enter innerwear segment

With 20 per cent market share and 40 per cent growth target for the forthcoming year, Bonjour, a leading manufacturers of socks, stockings, tights and hankies for men, women and kids is looking to aggressively venture into the innerwear

segment and expand beyond Indian boundaries. “Apart from introducing more affiliated products, we want to be the first Indian multinational socks brand by 2020,” observes R K Jain, Managing Director, Bonjour International.

The company with its sound manufacturing unit installed with some of the most sophisticated machinery and techniques plans to enter the innerwear segment for men and women, starting with panties first, in the next two years. “And then one after the other we will cover the whole segment. We will enter medium and upper market. Panties may start from Rs 60 and go to Rs 600 and we will expand our manufacturing capacity for this,” adds Jain.

Launched by Zonac Knitting Machines in 1988 with a vision of becoming the first Indian multinational socks brand Bonjour is known as the manufacturer of most versatile and largest socks range. As Jain explains, “Our main product line and lead position is in socks. We have two lines in -- one for the upper segment under brand name Bonjour and the other for the lower segment under the name Cent. We also do nightwear by the name ‘Bongio’ for both men and women. Handkerchiefs are a smaller category for us.”
Bonjour products are retailed through 3,000 premium stores across the country and about 8,000 plus hosiery and medium stores. Large formats contribute 15 to 20 per cent to the business. The company also has four EBOs in Delhi-NCR and is planning to expand further. “We are also present in the Middle East. For the past three years, we have shifted our factory’s production base from exporting to these countries (Europe and America) to the local market. We have a website in the name of Bongio and get direct orders on that from customers,” says Jain.

It is adding certain performance categories into socks for the forthcoming season. “These would be like certain compression hosiery which returns blood back to your heart. It doesn’t let blood clog in your feet when you are sitting in one position for a long time. Then there are certain pyramids implemented into it and they have a functional effect on blood circulation. There are several technologies available for doing this through a system of plasma treatment of fabrics,” Jain explains.