Duke Launches Fresh and Active Summer Range

Inspired by international designs and style, Duke Fashions has launched organic cotton clothing, made from 100 per cent cotton. It’s free from any kind of hazardous chemicals or other harmful treatments. This environment friendly range is available in exciting colors and designs.

Kuntal Raj Jain, Director, Duke Fashions says, “With varied options in casuals, office wear, and evening wear, this new international summer collection is a must for every wardrobe. In order to keep the freshness intact, the cloth has been treated with special sweat absorbent technology, thus making one feel fresh and active all through the day. Keeping in mind the sultry hot summers, the colors, shades and fabrics have been carefully chosen to give one an airy and cool feel.”

The company also launched Duke Game recently, a sportswear line which has T-shirts, shorts and lowers. Made from fabrics, which have a moisture management system in place that absorbs sweat, and are breathable, it’s ideal for all those who like a work out.

Launched in 1966, Duke is known as a T-shirts brand. In fact, even today the brand mostly caters to the T-shirt category. “Earlier, we were just a T-shirt brand and later we started with a winter range. Today, we have jackets, sweaters, and thermals. We also have shirts, trousers, lounge wear and several other categories,” says Jain. Being a pan-India brand Duke targets consumers of every segment -- for example, for basics and polos their consumers are the 30-plus age group and for designer casuals it’s the 20 to 30 year olds who are the target.

Currently, the brand is present in about 2,500 MBOs across India. They have 155 EBOs and are present in about eight to ten large formats as well. They are also present in Dubai, Nepal and Sri Lanka, wherein they directly deal with retailers and do not have shops of their own. “We plan to open 50 more EBOs and are targeting 500 MBOs. We are already with most large formats, like Reliance, D-Mart and Lifestyle and are now trying for Pantaloons and Central,” explains Jain.

As far as the manufacturing facilities are concerned most of Duke’s garments are currently outsourced from Ludhiana as it specializes in industrial woolens and knits. “Since we don’t specialize in woolen garments we outsource it. Our summer wear however is manufactured by us. We use state-of-the-art machinery imported from China, Japan etc.” Their turnover is around Rs 100 crores, out of which 45 per cent comes in winter and 55 per cent in summers. This financial year they are looking at a 40 per cent growth rate.