Madura Garments Stitches Aggressive Growth Design

Madura Garments has charted out a multi-pronged strategy consisting of leveraging its brand equity, apart from being 'open' to acquisition of more brands, optimising cost and strengthening marketing and distribution efforts to make aggressive forays in its segment.

"We have had a good year last year. We definitely want to grow aggressively which we plan to do through a series of measures," Madura Garments president Prakash Nedungadi said.

"We are open to acquisition in case our strategy requires. But we will first look at whether we need to acquire a brand or extend the range of our existing brands," Nedungadi said.

 

Madura Garments is a division of Indian Rayon and Industries Ltd, part of the Aditya Birla group. It acquired Madura Garments and in turn acquired global rights for Louis Philippe, Allen Solly (barring North America) and Peter England (with the exception of UK and Ireland).

The growth strategy includes: strengthening of marketing and distribution efforts; develoment of the market, increasing presence in the international market, optimising cost and tapping new growth segments through launch of of a lew of new collections in all the brands and line extensions.

"We plan to expand and intensify our efforts. We have several plans in terms of distribution," Nedugandi said.

The first leg of strategy consists of strengthening of the distribution network which includes increasing retail space by at least 30 per cent and making forays into mini-metros and smaller towns.

Ths second leg of the strategy includes development of the market. This will be carried out by stepping growth by accelerating conversions from the ready-to-stitch mindset to the ready-to-wear outlook.

The division plans to launch a slew of seasonal collections, apart from reinforcing its popular Peter England range.

The next leg consists of increasing its presence in the international market. This includes, making contract exports a focal point.

This will be done during slack seasons which will enable contract exports to achieve balanced volumes.

As part of the strategy to optimise cost, it expects to improve efficiency through value analysis, controlling material costs and improve supply chain management.

It had recently initiated 'Project Spark', a study conducted by a consulting firm to optimise costs. It plans to implement these recommendations to achieve higher stock turnouts and reduce costs.

Apart from having recently launched Peter England trousers, there are plans to launch blazers and jackets in multiple brands and price segments.

The newly-acquired garment business constitutes 23 per cent of the net turnover of Indian Rayon. In the first fully year of its operations, the garments business has been extremely successful, according to Nedungadi.

Divisional revenues have gone up by 42 per cent to Rs 325.5 crore on annualised basis during 2000-01.

The revenue growth for the full year, inclusive of the figures of this division, when it was a part of Madura Coats Ltd was 30 per cent. More than 47.2 lakh pieces od shirts, reflecting a growth of 23 per cent year-on-year have been sold.

Growth in the trouser segment grew to 11.6 lakh pieces which is over 71 per cent year-on-year.