Mandhana to launch menswear brand, venture into retail

As a vertically integrated company in the entire textile value chain, Mumbai-based Mandhana Industries plans to take its present capacity of around 3.6 million pieces of garments to 12 million pieces by next year. With the entire business split

into two divisions of domestic and exports, the company has manufacturing facilities spread across Tarapur with two processing units. About 92 per cent of their garments are exported, with only 8 per cent reserved for domestic brands.

Besides manufacturing, Mandhana Industries’ forte lies in garment designing. With the average realization per garment close to $9.5, which is one of the highest in the industry, the company’s fabrics also have an average realization per meter of almost Rs 130 a meter.

Mandhana Industries is known for a wide variety of fancy fabrics mainly shirting and dress material for women’s blouses and other garments. It manufactures yarn-dyed fabrics, jacquards, printed fabrics, solid dyed fabrics, blended fabrics as well as cotton and also plays with fibers like linen, tencel, and modal.

“We plan to enter the Indian retail market by the middle of next year. Probably, the third-half of next year with a menswear brand and later we will add women’s wear also. With the men’s wear brand we will open 15 to 20 flagship stores which will be company-owned in all the key metros. This will be done to create a visibility and buzz about the brand and then move to B and C cities with a franchisee model. Then we will get into multibrand outlets. We will be different from others because we have 20 years of international experience, which we will put into the brand in terms of creativity, product design and marketing,” says Manish Mandhana, Managing Director, Mandhana Industries.

“The plan is to have 300 to 400 selling points in the next three to four years. We are not looking at the bottom of the pyramid in terms of pricing. We want healthy bottom lines. So mid to high segment will be the target audience. We will target the youth.  The brand will be an Indian brand with collaboration.  It will be more on the casual side though we will have some semi-formals too but not the business kind,” he adds.

Having formed a wholly-owned subsidiary of Mandhana Industries called Mandhana Retail Ventures which will plan various retail activities, the company now plans to bring in foreign brands, get licenses and sell them in India. It also has plans to have JVs with foreign labels in segments such as food, lifestyle and clothing among others. Having closed at Rs 625 crores of topline in the last financial year, this year they are looking at profits worth Rs 800 crores. The export business of garments is also about Rs 160 to Rs 170 crores. The company currently does not export fabric and right now 30 per cent is for their own consumption and 70 per cent is sold to domestic brands and exporters. It plans to double capacity by next year while and have a turnover of more than Rs 1,100 crores in 2012.