Hanes: Focusing on women’s intimate wear for growth

Having established its men’s innerwear business in the country, Hanes is now focusing on building its women’s portfolio. As Shekhar Tewari, Managing Director, Hanes Brands Apparel says, “We recently launched two ranges in women’s brassiere

: Active Comfort, for the young with an active lifestyle. And All Day Comfort Bras, the global best-selling bra from Hanes with innovative comfort features like concealing petals in the cups. Hanes invented the concealer petals technology which is embedded in the cups to avoid ‘show through’ and provide a flawless look below clothes.”

Tapping into the youth phenomenon, Hanes, also brings something to the table called Graffitease. It isn’t just trendy, but fresh, designer and statement-worthy. The new range of innerwear features the most dynamic and exciting art form of the youth – graffiti -- on broad, bold and prominent waistbands. So it’s not just worn, but flaunted with pride. “The collection comes with promise of comfort that all Hanes products are known for. The range is available in three different styles – Fashion Trunk, Two Tone Brief and Contour Bikini,” elaborates Tewari on the latest offerings.

Hanes Brands is over 110-year-old company and one of the largest apparel companies in the world. The Indian business is around six years old, and is one of the major growth markets for the brand internationally. Hanes is a family brand with offerings in core categories of men’s and women’s innerwear, casualwear, socks and thermals. Commenting on the business in India, Tewari says, “We started with men’s innerwear in India. Having established a base we are now expanding aggressively in women’s innerwear, where we are bringing products with very unique consumer driven benefits.”

Talking about the impact of economic slowdown and increase in raw material prices on their business, Tewari says since the core focus of the company is innerwear, business does not get affected by sharp seasonalities. “However, there was a perceptible slowdown in business sentiment in the second half of 2011 as retail prices went up sharply due to raw material costs and the imposition of excise duty,” he sums up.

The company’s products are present in over 5,500 EBOs across 70+ top cities apart from key large format retailers like Shoppers Stop, Lifestyle, Reliance and Central.