Winstone, the designer jeans brand is among the few to have set up a plant at a Special Economic Zone (SEZ). Located at Mundhra, the factory produces 20,000 pieces a day. By setting up in a SEZ the brand also availed of several benefits.
Bharat Vedant, CEO, Winstone explains, “It’s a duty-free zone with income-tax exemption for 10 years. The state gives five per cent and TUF treaty gives 10 per cent respectively for capital investment. TUF also gives five per cent interest on cash-credit limit. That’s why we put up a factory there. The SEZ has three rows: One is for formal trousers, the second is for jeans and the third for casuals.”
In India, denim is available freely but denim development has not really taken off. This encouraged them to open a plant in SEZ. In fact, Winstone has taken two places in the SEZs. One is where the factory is coming up and the other would be used for manufacturing shirts. Once the first factory gets started they would move on to another one. “The shirt factory will take another one and a half years. We are planning casual and formal shirts. The factory will be fully automated,” avers Vedant. Talks are also on with an Italian company for a viable tie up. “We are tying up with an Italian company to handle the laundry and washing processes. Thus, we are looking at a complete state-of-the-art in house capability for denims which would be the best in India,” adds Vedant.
The brand primarily makes jeans, cotton casuals, shorts and designer men’s jackets. At the moment, they do not have any EBOs because they feel an EBO cannot sell only jeans and would need to have a whole range. The brand is available in 2,000 MBOs all over India. As for large formats, Winstone is present in Pantaloons. And they soon plan to start EBOs only for bottoms. These would come up once the factory is ready. “We want customers to come to Winstone stores every 10 days and find something new. Once our factory is ready, we can give something new every month. The factory can make 25,000 pieces in an 8-hour shift. It will have everything from cut to pack. Since we are very strong in the south, we will begin with EBOs there,” Vedant.
They idea behind EBOs for bottoms only is because they feel shirts have no brand loyalty but when it comes to bottoms, people have a strong brand loyalty. Moreover, from the beginning Winstone was determined to be known as a strong trouser brand.
Last year, the brand had a turnover of Rs 179 crores. This year they achieved a target of Rs 204 crores and expect to grow at 30 per cent the coming financial year.
