In the cost-sensitive spinning business where most products are generic, the last thing that any company would do is create a brand. RSWM did precisely that. Even as experts advised caution, the company launched yarn brands with its conviction that the consumer needed change. The result was that RSWM launched its first yarn brand in 2011, one of the first instances of branding within the country’s yarn sector.
The company launched the Ultima brand of grey yarn following the commissioning of its state-of-the-art SJ-11 unit. Ultima sales increased to 11 per cent in 2015-16. Encouraged by the success of Ultima, the company launched EDGE, its niche value-added brand of superior yarn products in 2015. The brand immediately addressed an unmet customer need. EDGE revenues accounted for 12 per cent of the company’s sales volume in 2015-16.
The grey yarn that was earlier priced as a commodity now fetches a reasonable premium over competing variants, moves faster off shelves and has enhanced the company’s corporate brand. Revenues from branded products increased from 8 per cent in 2014-15 to 13 per cent in 2015-16.
Customisation
The next trend initiated by RSWM was to customize and manufacture yarn as per customer specifications and requirement. The company’s ‘3/7/25’ counter-response was fundamentally simple – three days for lab prototyping, seven days for trial sampling and 25 days for bulk manufacturing.
At RSWM, this development has not been something that happened in a flash. The company created product development centres within its manufacturing locations. It invested Rs. 134 crores in enhancing its capabilities and allocated dedicated infrastructure and resources for timely product development, and monitored the progress of each customer request on a real-time basis. The result is that even as the broad yarn market continued to be challenging.
RSWM’s performance was pleasantly surprising. It attracted new customers and increased its share of the customer’s wallet. It empowered its customers to address their end-user needs and strengthened its brand in a relatively unbranded market place.