With a turnover of Rs 10 crores, kids’ wear player Oil and Grease aims for a growth target of 15 to 20 percent. At the same time, it’s looking at increasing its production capacity from 1.5 lakh to 2 lakh pieces a year.
Girls wear in the pipeline
“We may start with girls’ wear next season for one to 16 years age group. We will introduce western
wear tops and bottoms, shorts, pedal pushers in the price range Rs 200 to Rs 2,000,” informs Ratnesh Baronia, Managing Director of Oil and Grease. After working as a senior designer with kids’ wear brand Gini & Jony, Baronia decided to launch his own label in 2004. That’s how Oil and Grease was established. Initially it started with a range for boys one to 16 years.
Oil and Grease is retailed through 450 MBOs all over India. Elaborating on the brand’s retail presence Baronia says, “We have 15 distributors and are present in most states from J&K to Tamil Nadu, all the seven Northeastern states, Maharashtra, Goa, Jharkhand, Bihar and Gujarat. We want to enter large formats and increase MBOs by 20 percent by March 2015. We also sell online with some portals.”
The brand caters to the premium segment with a portfolio of shorts, Jamaicans, denims, cargos, coloured bottoms, shirts and jackets. “We create our own styles at our design studio with mill-made fabrics from Mumbai. We use denim for lightweight shirting, capris and Jamaicans, shorts and full length pants,” Baronia explains.
Inspired by international brands the name stuck because of the denim treatment called ‘Oil and Grease’. The punch line is ‘lubricating fashion’. Inspired by the garage look, it has casual, funky feel.
All garments offered by the brand are embroidered. Baronia believes that in kids’ wear there has to be some embroidery or printing or embellishment. “We have intricate detailing and grading in patterns. Boys grow every year. So we have 12 to 13 sizes for every age from one to 16.”
Business development strategies
Oil and Grease has a factory spread over 7,000 square foot and with a capacity to produce 15,000 to 18,000 pieces a month. While the brand has increased production capacity, it also outsources to meet demand. As Baronia opines even in a dull market, if collection is good a brand can do well. “The response during Eid was not encouraging, let’s see what happens around Diwali. I don’t foresee a boom in the market but if collections are good we may get a good response. A big manufacturer has to start a season in advance. Right now we are supplying for Diwali while preparing for summer 2015. Hence, even though we have to manufacture huge quantities of what’s in style that season, simultaneously we have to be on par with fashion. Last season cotton trousers were in, then denim caught up, so cotton trousers went off shelves. This season denim is in but it may change as the market is volatile,” sums up Baronia.
