Innovating for a bright Future

Despite road blocks, apparel major Indus-League is scripting a growth story across brands

Indus-League is focusing on innovative methods to woo consumers with its cool line of branded apparels to beat the heat of the excise duty hike and rising raw material costs.

The wholly-owned subsidiary of Future Group offers an attractive range of products under the following brands: Indigo Nation, Scullers, Urban Yoga, Jealous 21, Urbana, Daniel Hechter and John Miller.

“We give a lot of importance to product innovation, which will cater to the varied choice of our customers. Every brand is positioned in such a way that it should reach our targeted customers,” says Rachna Aggarwal, chief executive officer of Indus League.

According to Aggarwal, each brand has positioned itself to offer a style-statement to a specific age-group or a select set of the social elite: While “Indigo Nation” is a collection of formal wears for young executives, “Jealous 21” is a brand that primarily targets college girls. Similarly, “Scullers”is designed to cater to the sporty and fun-loving Gen-X and Urbana is positioned as a premium product for men above 35.

The company has also done some product innovations for specific requirements. “The Urban Yoga brand is a line of clothing meant for yoga and other holistic pursuits. It is meant for those who believe in the philosophy of yoga. Though this brand is small in terms of revenue as of now, we get a lot of inquiries from overseas prospects for this kind of clothing,” says Aggarwal.

The company targets the premium category consumer with brands like John Miller and Daniel Hechter. “While brands like Scullers and John Miller are worth more than Rs 100 crore, Urbana stands at around Rs 50 crore. Jealous 21 is a relatively small brand, but is growing at more than 40 per cent in recent times.”

Indus-League, which has seen a retail turnover of more than Rs 500 crore in the last financial year, is posting profit for the last three years. Earlier, Kishore Biyani, chief executive officer of the Future Group, had said that the fashion business has been doing reasonably well with the EBIDTA at 12-15 per cent. He also said Indus League, where the company held 84-85 per cent stake, was a significantly large company. “It should be ready for an IPO probably in the next 12 months,” Biyani had said.

However, Aggarwal refused to divulge further details about the future course of action. She said while the company will concentrate on increasing its market presence through business expansions, promoters will decide its valuation.

Indus-League had also invested in marketing its products through a tie-up with Royal Challengers Bangalore for the past two years. “Apart from our association with RCB for Indigo Nation, we have recently signed Manish Pandey as the brand ambassador for three years,” she said. The brand is also associated with Force India for its Scullers wear.

The company is spending 5-6 per cent of its revenue in branding and advertising and plans to add another 24 company-owned stores to its existing 100 outlets this financial year.

However, all is not well for the company and the industry as a whole. “On the industry level, the recent excise duty hike has put pressure on margins. Also, rise in raw material prices and wage costs are other areas of concern for the company. But the company might benefit from the recent cotton price correction.”

Issues like efficient stock management and skilled workforce also remain a problem for the firm. “Both company and industry specific issues are same for all players in the market place and we hope that rising consumption will fuel our growth in the near future,” Aggarwal signed off.