Linen Club, a unit of Aditya Birla Nuvo, is synonymous with linen fabric. The brand has just opened its 13th retail store in Maharashtra. With this new store, it now has a total of 46 stores spread across India. Almost all the stores are
franchisees. Linen Club is now looking at opening 200 stores in the next four to five years. As S Krishnamoorthy, President-Textile Division, Aditya Birla Group explains, “We will double our linen turnover from Rs 300 crores to Rs 700 crores in four to five years.” Linen Club is one of the few organized linen players in India and has been doing business for more than 60 years. According to Krishnamoorthy linen is a difficult fiber to handle. “Its availability as a fiber is almost nil in the last 10 years. Other than France and Belgium it’s not available anywhere. Of course, some linen is produced in Egypt and China, but that’s of coarse counts and not fit for apparels. For apparels the fiber from Belgium and France are the best and we are one of the leading importers.”
Retail prices start at Rs 600 a meter and goes up to Rs 2,500 a meter. About 80 per cent of the product is pure linen. There are blends of cotton linen, linen silk, linen wool. Cotton linen makes the price cheaper and linen silk lends an exclusive touch. “Pure linen is the fastest selling item and to meet the price bracket people buy cotton linen,” explains Krishnamoorthy. The brand introduces a new collection every three months. It has a summer collection, a festive collection and one or two collections in between. For winter 2011, it is doing linen wool. In linen, 30 to 40 per cent is whites, which sells the most. And 30 per cent is solids and 40 per cent is yarn-dyed stripes and checks.
Krishnamoorthy says, “We have about 70 per cent market share. We import 100 per cent of the raw material from France and Belgium and convert it into yarn, fabric and sell 100 per cent to the domestic market. In that about 70 to 80 per cent we sell over the counter retail through EBOs and MBOs. And 20 per cent is sold to leading brands.” Even though there are numerous opportunities for exports, at the moment Linen Club is not keen for it wants to focus on domestic supplies.
Linen Club caters to Tier I, II cities. The ratio of business is around 25 per cent Tier I cities and 75 per cent Tier II. Krishnamoorthy says linen is a difficult business to be in as linen is not cheap because of the generic nature of the raw material and the way the fabric is produced. “Though it’s natural, biodegradable, moisture-absorbent, the fact that it crumples easily has become the trademark of linen. And to get people to use it will take time,” he sums up.
