Crusoe to launch women’s lingerie, kids’ line

Coimbatore-based Jagannath Textile Company, makers of the men’s premium undergarment brand Crusoe, plans to launch a lingerie range. Abhishek R Tibrewal, Chief Marketing Officer, Crusoe and Director of the company says the project

being finalised and “we will soon roll out the new range”. In an already crowded innerwear market, the challenge before Jagannath Textile was to launch an Indian brand among international giants. They wanted to gain a strong foothold in the elite league with a ‘Made in India’ label. And so in 2009, they launched Crusoe.

Crusoe is positioned as a lifestyle product and the brand identity has been designed around ‘adventure’. As Managing Director Ramesh Kumar Tibrewal explains, “Within the premium segment Crusoe has a range of designer innerwear that is inspired from the name and the attitude of the brand which is ‘adventure’.” The over two-and-a-half-year-old brand has a market share of 1.5 per cent within India. “We aim to increase our market share in the premium and super premium innerwear categories, apart from expanding our geographical reach with a strong foothold in the international market. Moving ahead, we want to launch new and innovative products, which will be unique in its category. We also plan to launch women’s and kid’s wear in 2013,” Tibrewal adds.

In India, Crusoe, competes with global brands like Jockey, Hanes, Fruit of the Loom and Levis, and some regional brands. While the market leader in the segment, Jockey, accounts for 60 per cent of the Rs 1,350-crore premium market, Crusoe is looking for ‘a share of the rest’. The brand posted a turnover of Rs 15 crores last year. “Our target is to double it this year,” says Abhishek R Tibrewal.

Crusoe offers more than 40 styles under its existing ranges, namely Base, Nxt, Xtreme, Surge and Thermal. It has three company-owned EBOs at Coimbatore, Kolkata and Mumbai and three more are in the pipeline at Coimbatore, Cochin and Chennai and Crusoe has plans to open 100 stores in the next four years. The collection is also present in nearly 5,000 retail outlets and 600 MBO’s. “The brand’s tagline ‘Who are you inside’ was the beginning of its retail experience creation. Crusoe’s brand imagery of being adventurous has been taken as the essence for retail elements inside the brand’s exclusive outlets and it has been designed accordingly,” Tibrewal says.

Taking cue from the growing e-commerce space, the company launched its e-portal. The products are also available on other e-platforms such as myntra.com, yebhi.com and homeshop18.com. Summing up, Tibrewal says, “For the last three years, Crusoe has been growing at 100 per cent and the target is to reach a turnover of Rs 50 crores in next three years.”