Reliance Industries Ltd. (RIL) is looking at over two-fold increase in sales to Rs. 1,800 crores from its textiles brand Vimal in the next three years and positioning it as a youth-oriented affordable fashion label.
The brand, which is also getting into ready-to-wear segment, besides fabrics, is tapping young entrepreneurs and start-up co-founders to endorse the brand to connect with “new age Indian customers”.
The company will invest Rs. 350 crores in a phased-manner in the next three years to increase its textile production capacity to 25 million metres a year from 20 million metres per year at present.
“We have been focusing on product, branding and innovation for pushing growth of Vimal. We are looking for a retail sales of Rs. 1,800 crores in the next three years from our present base of Rs. 800 crores”, said Mr. Pradeep Bhandari, CEO (Textiles Business), Reliance Industries Ltd.
The company, which has launched the Spring Summer collection for this season, is looking to have 150 Vimal exclusive stores in three years, up from 50 at present. “These will be a mix of company-owned and franchise,” he said, adding that there would also be shop-in-shop in Reliance Trends stores.
Currently, Vimal is concentrated in East Indian stores such as West Bengal and Bihar. “We are looking at expanding the reach of Vimal across all regions of India, going forward,” he said.
Elaborating on the company’s strategy to promote the brand, Mr. Bhandari observed: “We want to position Vimal as a contemporary high-fashion product and yet affordable. We have approached new age entrepreneurs to promote the product.”
The company will be running Vimal ad campaigns featuring Zify Founder Anurag Singh Rathor, iD Fresh Food Co-founder Musthafa PC, Bankbazaar Founder Adhil Shetty, Local Banya Founder Karan Mehrotra and Chumbak Founder Vivek Prabhakar as it looks to connect with young aspiring Indians.
On investments, Mr. Bhandari said Rs. 350 crores will “mainly lead to increase in the capacity of production of high-end fabric”.
Stating that fabrics will be the mainstay of the brand, he disclosed: “As of now, we have around 90 per cent of sale of Vimal coming from fabrics and the rest from the apparels segment. In three years, we see it changing to 75:25.
When asked about exports, he said currently Vimal is exported to different global markets, including the US, Europe, Far East, Middle East and Africa. “Exports account for around 40 per cent of the turnover and it will remain the same going forward as our focus will be on growing the brand in the domestic market.”
On the need to offer “differentiated product”, Mr. Bhandari said the company has been focusing on R&D and has patented an anti-microbial technology called DEO2 that is suitable for the “tropical Indian market.”
– PTI Economic Service