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January 25, 2021
Written By Devika Singh
As demand for formal footwear dips, brands shift focus to casual wear such as flip-flops and slides
Overall, industry watchers predict that the footwear market will be out of the woods by mid-2021.
The pandemic has forced footwear brands to retrace their steps. As sales of formal footwear declined, with consumers working from home, the spotlight has fallen on casual footwear. Footwear manufacturers such as Lakhani Footwear, Red Chief and Metro Brands (which houses Metro Shoes), Mochi and Walkaway, have rejigged their strategy in the past year to suit this trend.
According to Ayyappan Rajagopal, head of business, Myntra, the relatively smaller segment of open footwear, which includes flip-flops and slides, has posted the strongest growth in the footwear segment on Myntra in 2020. “This rising demand led to several leading brands placing a higher emphasis on the casual segment on our platform,” he adds. Meanwhile, formal and occasion wear have taken a big hit.
Abheek Singhi, MD and senior partner, BCG, estimates that the footwear market in India is valued at Rs 75,000-85,000 crore, and about 45-50% of this market is unbranded. Most of the companies operating in the branded segment reported a 90-100% recovery in sales in the third quarter of FY21 (October-December), compared to the pre-Covid period. For the entire financial year, however, the revenue for the segment will see a drop of 10-15%, as per ICRA.
Informal is in
Much like the apparel and electronics categories, footwear, too, has seen better recovery in tier II cities and beyond. Lakhani Footwear claims it will close the year at the same revenue as last year — Rs 165 crore — despite the tough initial two-three months owing to the lockdown. The company currently caters to consumers at the bottom of the pyramid, with products such as slippers, sandals and shoes in the range of Rs 100-1500.
Lakhani Footwear is now bringing out a casual footwear range, with an eye on tier I cities, which will include sneakers and fashion footwear. “We have tied up with e-commerce marketplaces to introduce these products, and will also retail them through our website by Diwali,” says Mayank Lakhani, MD, Lakhani Infinity Footwear. These products will be priced in the Rs 700-2,000 range.
Red Chief is planning to launch a new brand, Comfort Walk, which would include products like flip-flops and slides for “value-seeking” consumers. “The demand for our products priced above Rs 2,500 was sluggish in 2020; hence, we plan to introduce a product range priced below Rs 1,000,” says Akhilesh Singh, COO, Leayan Global, which owns brand Red Chief. The company earns 40% of its revenue from formal leather shoes and 60% from casual footwear. Its products fall in the Rs 1,800-4,000 price range.
Making casualisation a priority, Metro Brands has reshuffled its inventory, and also designed a work-from-home collection in-house. “A few external formal brands are being phased out, while some like ID and Buckaroo are moving from offering formal to more casual footwear,” says Alisha Malik, VP, e-commerce and marketing, Metro Brands.
Further, the company is putting off investing in new inventory for its super-premium range of footwear that are priced at Rs 10,000-25,000. Metro Brands also plans to amplify the presence of Crocs, for which it is the retail partner in India, in the metro cities.
A good step?
Although the fashion industry has been moving towards casualisation since a while, the pandemic has certainly accelerated the pace, experts say. “In the past, most fashion trends cycles have lasted at least for a decade, so the shift towards casualisation is going to stay for a longer term,” says Singhi of BCG.
But footwear manufacturers, especially those that are mid-sized, will have to tread with caution as they will have to invest in building new capabilities — wider distribution networks and a robust online strategy — as they diversify their portfolios.
Devangshu Dutta, chief executive, Third Eyesight, says that footwear products, in general, have a longer lead time. They typically take about a year to be designed and launched in the market, and, hence, need more investment. “Companies will have to ensure that they make good of this investment,” he cautions.
Overall, industry watchers predict that the footwear market will be out of the woods by mid-2021.
Source: financialexpress
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January 1, 2021
Written By ANSHUL DHAMIJA
Sunder Genomal, MD, Page Industries
Page Industries got the underwear out of the closet and achieved a decadal success story like no other. A slowing economy has dented its sheen, but the company believes it is still in a sweet spot.
A visit to a Jockey store for day-to-day apparel like underwear or just plain pyjamas is sure to make one’s wallet lighter. For example, for men who like to laze at home in their boxers, the cost of the garment is upwards of ₹419 apiece. Pyjamas, another comfort garment, costs a shade under ₹1,000 apiece. Jockey, an American brand that re-entered India in 1995 (it was around for about three-four years in the early 1970s), generally carries a premium of at least 20% over other Indian mainline innerwear brands like Lux, Rupa, and Dollar.
Billionaire Sunder Genomal, though, likes to think of Jockey as a “value for money proposition” for the Indian consumer. “An aspirational, yet affordable brand,” says the 67-year-old managing director of Page Industries, the exclusive licensee of Jockey International Inc. in India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, the U.A.E., Oman, and Qatar. The company is also the licensee of the U.K.’s swimwear brand, Speedo International, in India and Sri Lanka. Jockey, though, is the mainstay brand of Page Industries. Genomal, along with his elder brothers Nari and Ramesh, holds about 54% stake in Page Industries, which commands a market capitalisa – tion of about $3.2 billion, as of mid-November. “We like to offer the consumer more than what we have promised—quality, style, and comfort at a sensible price,” Genomal tells Fortune India. His words are solidly backed by the performance of the company
Image : Graphics by Rahul Sharma
Having reported a nine-year revenue and profit CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of 27% and 29%, respectively, in this decade, Page Industries has been the fastest-growing apparel company in India, according to a report by brokerage firm Anand Rathi.
Jockey, too, is the single largest-selling apparel brand in India. On the bourses, the Page Industries share price has moved from ₹395, after its stock market debut in 2007, to ₹22,185 as of mid-November this year—a whopping 5,550% growth and an indication of investor confidence in the company. Its share price had even touched a high of ₹34,688 in August 2018 but slipped after two consecutive fiscals of moderate-to-flat sales growth. This made retail analysts question whether the innerwear maker had peaked out. “At some point you start to hit the glass ceiling of overall market growth, which also depends on how the economy is doing,” points out Devangshu Dutta, CEO of Third Eyesight, a consultancy firm.
Ranked No. 368 on the Fortune India 500 list, Page Industries has no doubt been a decadal success story like no other. “Post 1995, a new generation of professional executives in IT, banking, and other sectors had emerged, and Jockey, being an international brand, appealed to them,” says Govind Shrikhande, the former managing director of departmental store chain Shoppers Stop. Ironically, the brand is “not as strong in the U.S. as it is in India,” he adds.
Regarded by stock analysts as a quiet and efficient performer, Page Industries has been devoid of any major controversy. That’s up until September this year when reports of human rights violations at a company factory in Bengaluru surfaced. The Worldwide Responsible Accredited Production (WRAP), a non-profit entity dedicated to promoting safe, lawful, humane, and ethical manufacturing around the world, began an investigation into the alleged violations; Jockey is a founding member of the industry watchdog.
Image : Graphics by Rahul Sharma
While Genomal steered clear of the issue, a Reuters report in October said: “Page [Industries] denied wrongdoing and called allegations of verbal abuse and workplace intimidation against employees ‘outrageous’.”
Brokerage firm Edelweiss, in its results report on Page Industries in November, highlighted that clearance from WRAP could come in the coming weeks. The report, which detailed the conference call highlights with the company’s management, said: “WRAP has conducted a rigorous inspection in October and they are satisfied with the status of affairs… WRAP has indicated that none of the allegations highlighted were mentioned by the employees.”
Brand consultant Raghu B. Viswanath says the investigation by WRAP would hardly dent the overall image of the company. “I don’t believe that brand Jockey will be seen in a lesser light by the consumer given its extremely strong equity,” says Viswanath, also the chairman and chief vision holder of consultancy firm Vertebrand. From a low of `18,000 in September, Page Industries’ share price was up 23% by mid-November, showing no signs of investors losing confidence in the company.
Jockey re-entered the Indian market at a time when innerwear was a segment of little worth to the consumer, and investing in a premium brand was hardly a trend. But Page Industries focussed on product quality and quickly built a go-to brand around Jockey. It developed an extensive network of distributors, much like an FMCG company, across the country; changed the rules of retailing with product displays and attractive packaging, and—to a great extent—brought the innerwear category out of the closet. “It helped redefine the entire category,” says Viswanath. “This created a headstart advantage for the brand, even as many other players with deep marketing budgets are still trying to play catch-up.”
Page Industries plant
Data sourced from Page Industries’ FY20 annual report shows that India’s innerwear market has an estimated worth of ₹32,000 crore, accounting for 9% of the total fashion retail market. Of that, 64% comprises the women’s innerwear segment, with the balance being the men’s and kid’s segments. The innerwear market is projected to grow at a CAGR of 11% to reach ₹89,700 crore by 2028. The women’s segment is projected to grow at 12.5%, almost double the pace of the men’s segment. According to brokerage firm Geojit, Jockey has a 19%-20% market share in the men’s premium innerwear segment, and 5%-6% in the women’s segment.
Given the projected growth in the women’s category, Page Industries is already on the ball. It has been adding exclusive brand outlets for women to its retail network (44 such outlets have been rolled out so far), and is adding another 90,000 sq. ft. of manufacturing space in Hassan, Karnataka, to cater to the growth of the women and kidswear segments. The latter is another key growth driver for the company, given its projected market size of ₹1.34 lakh crore by 2025. At present, almost 45% of Jockey sales in India is driven by the men’s innerwear category, where competition has picked up pace.
Image : Graphics by Rahul Sharma
Over the last 24 months, the retail industry has suffered heavily—beginning with a slowdown in the economy and followed by the Covid-19 pandemic, which led to brick-and-mortar retail being shut for about two months. “Right from the last quarter of 2019, the Indian economy has been under stress. There have been huge pileups of unsold inventory across many brands since then,” says Viswanath. Page Industries’ FY20 performance (see graph) was a testament to the headwinds in the retail sector.
Now, in the shadow of Covid-19, there are more headwinds for innerwear brands, and they need to re-examine their strategies given that people aren’t going out as often as they did. Consequently, the need to buy more undergarment pieces comes down. Intrinsically, the category has challenges such as a higher replacement cycle, especially among men. “In the U.S. and Europe, men typically buy underwear multiple times, and every year, as it is part of their fashion and lifestyle wardrobe. In India, the replacement cycle varies between two to three years as this category is still only a necessity,” says Shrikhande.
“This can only be addressed through product innovation, fashion, personality, and brand-led differentiations,” he adds. And that’s already visible with niche men’s innerwear brands such as XYXX and One8, which is owned by India’s cricket captain Virat Kohli. Page Industries’ profitable growth and low barriers to entry have also led to a rise in competition.
Three years ago, Pepe Jeans Europe entered into an equal joint venture partnership with hosiery major Dollar Industries to manufacture and market premium fashion innerwear, loungewear, gymwear, and sleepwear clothing for adults and kids. Likewise, for a play in the premium segment, Kolkata-based Rupa & Co.’s subsidiary, Oban Fashions Private Limited, acquired the brand licences of FCUK and Fruit of the Loom. Apart from this, a few domestic and international fashion brands like Van Heusen, U.S. Polo Assn., and Tommy Hilfiger have also started jostling for space in this category.
Jockey re-entered the Indian market at a time when innerwear was a segment of little worth to the consumer, and investing in a premium brand was hardly a trend. But Page Industries focussed on product quality and quickly built a go-to brand around Jockey. It developed an extensive network of distributors, much like an FMCG company, across the country; changed the rules of retailing with product displays and attractive packaging, and—to a great extent—brought the innerwear category out of the closet.
“While in the past the competition wasn’t credible, the newer competition is more credible, has sound brand equity, and better distribution,” says the Anand Rathi report. “We believe the increase in competition will have a slight impact on Page’s [Industries] growth ahead.” Moreover, the new entrants have the second-mover advantage: entry into a market that’s primed and ready for a brand. “It took Van Heusen innerwear about two years to reach revenue of ₹200 crore while Jockey had taken about nine years to hit half of that, and another 14 years to reach ₹200 crore,” the report added.
Many within the industry believe that the innerwear category will evolve much like the fashion space, where different kinds of products would be positioned for different occasions. For example, different underwear for work, home, and for partying. “That said, the brand Jockey, I feel, is still synonymous in India with what is ‘inside’. It’s the ‘Intel Inside’ of the Indian innerwear market,” quips Viswanath.
If Covid-19 is ensuring that people aren’t going out enough and, hence, not changing their underwear often enough, then leisurewear, which includes the athleisure clothing segment, is “going through the roof”, says Genomal. “People have realised that these are multi-functional products and the athleisure segment’s share of the pie will certainly increase significantly, in terms of the overall sales, going forward.” For the first six months of the ongoing fiscal, Page Industries reported revenue of ₹1,025 crore, a 36% drop compared to the corresponding period a year ago, on account of the impact of the pandemic. Its profit fell by 68% to ₹71.3 crore. Genomal maintains that sales are back to near pre-Covid-19 levels across product categories.
But it still begs the question whether Page Industries would be able to repeat its phenomenal decadal growth in the next decade. Despite the headroom for growth, analysts are doubtful, given the rise in competition. “It will be vital for them to retain the appeal among younger consumers, without which the momentum is bound to slow down,” says Dutta of Third Eyesight.
Genomal, a citizen of the Philippines who has set up base in Bengaluru, though, believes that brand Jockey is in a sweet spot. “We just need to focus on our core competency and keep our heads down,” he says. “The kind of portfolio that we have is still highly under-penetrated. We are actually more excited today than we ever were about the future,” says Genomal, whose exposure to the Jockey brand began when he was 10 years old. His father, Topandas Verhomal Genomal, was granted the exclusive licence to manufacture and retail Jockey in the Philippines in 1959. Genomal brought that legacy partnership to India and the rest, as they say, is history.
Source: fortuneindia
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December 14, 2020
Written By Yashi Gupta
The numbers are not working in Walmart’s favour either. More than a decade after entering the country, Walmart has accumulated a loss of Rs 2,500 crore. In the year ended March, Walmart India posted a net loss of Rs 299 crore while revenue grew 20 percent to Rs 4,926 crore.
Flipkart plans to cut Walmart’s store size by half to turn the remaining space into warehouses for its online business, according to an Economic Times report. Sources told ET that Flipkart could entirely convert some stores into fulfilment centres.
Walmart started its operations in India in 2009 and currently operates 29 stores with the size of 50,000 sq ft. In July 2020, Flipkart acquired Walmart’s cash-and-carry business and announced the launch of a new B2B marketplace, Flipkart Wholesale. This reverse acquisition was expected to accelerate its expansion in the food and grocery segment and strengthen its supply chain.
However, the falling relevance of brick-and-mortar stores in India has now prompted the e-commerce firm to convert twenty-nine of Walmart’s cash and carry stores into wholesale and warehousing centres. Before the acquisition, Walmart was planning to cut its store sizes from 50,000 to 45,000 sq ft. The then President and CEO of Walmart India, Krish Iyer, had said in 2019: “Customer centricity and availability of right real estate land parcel help us determine the location and size. At a couple of locations, we have developed smaller stores of 45,000 sq ft more so to help us meet the member needs of those unique geographies based on the availability of right land parcels.” This strategy gave it an advantage in terms of market penetration to serve the customers optimally.
The latest decision was taken to adapt to the changing consumer in behaviour and mounting losses. According to the latest data, Walmart’s stores generate half of their revenues from online sales or sales teams visiting B2B members for orders.
“The existing stores serve local businesses and Kirana stores but combining it with online will help address the entire catchment area better,” said Devangshu Dutta, founder of strategy consulting firm Third Eyesight. “So they are making the assets work a little harder and clearly it is a logical move to combine their online strength with a brick-and-mortar presence.”
The numbers are not working in Walmart’s favour either. More than a decade after entering the country, Walmart has accumulated a loss of Rs 2,500 crore. In the year ended March, Walmart India posted a net loss of Rs 299 crore while revenue grew 20 percent to Rs 4,926 crore.
Flipkart has also announced absorption of 5000 of Walmart’s employees on Friday. It said that Walmart’s employees would be given corresponding roles in Flipkart with matching terms of compensation, responsibility, and profiles.
Source: cnbctv18
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December 10, 2020
Written By Samreen Ahmed
Grofers, which has a strong play in the private labels segment across categories, is likely to follow this strategy in the fashion segment
Grofers is replicating this BigBazaar kind of model giving more options to increase the amount of spending they get from households, says Meena.
Online grocer Grofers started selling apparel and footwear for better margins. Grocery forms the largest chunk of consumer spending and highly competitive but fashion offers better profits, according to ecommerce experts.
“From a scale and stickiness perspective grocery as a segment is very attractive but from a margin perspective, it is quite competitive. In all of food and grocery sales across the country, even in large cities where internet penetration is high, grocery still remains focussed largely on offline. This segment also requires deep pockets,” said Devangshu Dutta, Chief Executive Officer of Third Eyesight./
The SoftBank and Tiger Global-funded company has started selling low-priced items in apparel, footwear, non-clothing and travel accessories categories to expand its basket size. It has already seen a 40 per cent increase in its overall basket size as compared to the pre-Covid era.
“This category is important as it is the second largest after electronics in online shopping and attracts new customers on board.
While there is good margin in fashion, it grows further when it comes to private labels,” explains Satish Meena, Senior Forecast Analyst at Forrester Research. The private label brands have been providing an opportunity to make fashion more affordable to the masses and these changes in pricing are driving more customers to online platforms, said a RedSeer report.
Grofers, which has a strong play in the private labels segment across categories, is likely to follow this strategy in the fashion segment.
With 1,200 products across all categories, the private labels segment constitutes more than half of the company’s sales. Currently, its own brands form 40 per cent of the business, and the company is expecting to grow this to 60 per cent.
Grofers is replicating this BigBazaar kind of model giving more options to increase the amount of spending they get from households, says Meena. Apart from fashion and lifestyle products, it has also forayed into the winter assortment category selling blankets, comforters, room heaters, beginning mid-October.
According to RedSeer, while the fashion market is growing at a CAGR of 11 per cent in the country, online fashion is growing the fastest at a CAGR of 32 per cent. With players such as Myntra and Ajio already having a stronghold in the segment, it will be challenging for Grofers to make a mark in this new category.
“We don’t expect this to be a great strategy as category leaders like Myntra outperforms Grofers both in offering (variety) and price,” says IDBI Capital in a note.
Currently operational in 27 cities, Grofers claims to have acquired 1.8 million new customers since the lockdown. “We have seen a spurt in demand from non-metro markets as online grocery has become a mass household phenomenon. We have witnessed an increase of 54 per cent in orders in smaller cities like Indore, Agra, Panipat,” said the Gurugram-based company.
According to reports, the company is also in the process of raising up to $60 million from investors as marquee players such as Tatas, Reliance, and Amazon make big bets in the online grocery space.
Customer trends during Covid-19 pandemic
* 1.8 mn new customers
* 40% increase in basket size
* 54% rise in orders from Tier II/III
* 64% first time online grocery shoppers
* 20% first time online shoppers
Source: Company
Source: business-standard
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December 3, 2020
Written By Dheeraj Tagra
At a time when India is seeing a growing number of young entrepreneurs eager to innovate and take risk in the shape of ‘start-ups’, it is sad to note that the apparel manufacturing sector has not attracted these youngsters. If we do see some intervention in the textile value chain, it is mostly on the retail side and little bit on the tech side. Over the years, there are very few professionals who have taken the plunge to be entrepreneurs and run a factory successfully.
While entrepreneurship is being encouraged greatly these days, the definition of MSME is enhanced and many Government schemes are inviting investments in apparel manufacturing, why has the apparel industry been left behind in getting new ‘entrepreneurs’ is a question many are asking. The fact remains that the Indian apparel professionals lack entrepreneurial skills and feel safe working with established companies rather than using their experience to upgrade the industry.
It is also pertinent to mention here that the second generation of established players are not much enthusiastic to continue in the apparel or textile manufacturing sector; so having a fresh entrepreneur, for whom understanding the functions of the industry is difficult, is indeed a cause of worry for many.
At a time when India is seeing a growing number of young entrepreneurs eager to innovate and take risk in the shape of ‘start-ups’, it is sad to note that the apparel manufacturing sector has not attracted these youngsters. If we do see some intervention in the textile value chain, it is mostly on the retail side and little bit on the tech side. Over the years, there are very few professionals who have taken the plunge to be entrepreneurs and run a factory successfully.
Often, Indian apparel factories claim that a particular department/unit of their company is a separate profit centre for them and their teams runs its business as entrepreneurs, rather than just doing their stated job, but is that enough? What more can be done to encourage fresh entrepreneurs to be a part of the apparel industry, needs serious debate.
Many at small scale but none at the large level To its credit, the industry in the last few years has seen a few players that have started their own business and are surviving well. Majority of such entrepreneurs are those that have decades of experience in a particular department of an apparel unit, developed strong network as well as resources. And now they are utilising their strengths as a business promoter. In most cases these units are very small and operations are very much under the control of the promotor, so they are surviving, and a few of them have even grown reasonably well. There also there are few who are still struggling to create a place of their own.
Major obstructions
This is a hard fact, but the reality is that over the last 5 years, Indian apparel export is facing negative growth and it is very hard to grow for most of the established players. Very few companies have expanded in recent years while majority of the companies have seen standard growth. So, it’s natural that no one would like to invest in such an industry which does not promise growth on the base of past performance.
New players prefer to invest in other industries like retail, e-commerce as the variables are more manageable. One of the biggest constraints in apparel manufacturing or even in textile industry is managing a large labour base, besides being deadline driven and seasonal in nature (in export mainly).
Government push
It is heartening to note that the Government in the last few years has announced various initiatives to promote entrepreneurship across the manufacturing industry, that too at state as well as centre level like incubation centre, one district one product (ODOP), Mudra loan, Start-up India, Make in India, Single Window Clearance and various other kinds of subsidies.
The overall industry can expect to see more inflow of investment with initiatives likes proposal for creation of National Technical Textiles Mission for a period of 4 years (2020-21 to 2023-24) with an outlay of Rs. 1,480 crore and approval to introduce the Production-Linked Incentives (PLI) Scheme with the financial outlay of Rs. 10,683 crore for over a 5-year period.
Yet, experts believe that Government is not much concerned regarding new entrepreneurs in the apparel business as fresh investment by old players also serves the purpose of the Government – large-scale employment generation. According to information shared by Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC), there are 493 members who have established their companies from 2017 to date, but how many of them are actually new entrepreneurs, even AEPC is not sure about this.
Giving the obvious reasons for lack of fresh talent in the industry, Rahul Mehta, Chief Mentor, CMAI and MD, Creative Garments, Mumbai, argues, “The simple reason is the meagre profitability of the apparel sector. Garment manufacturing is a labour-intensive activity, involving largely hands-on working and day-to-day operations. Although the investment tends to be lower than most other industries, the returns do not justify the effort. Hence, whilst existing companies continue to operate, very little incentive is there for new entrepreneurs coming in.” He further adds that apparel industry is considered a traditional industry, and does not have the appeal of a ‘New Age’ industry – which most people of the younger generation would be interested in.
Regarding Government schemes, he is of the view that most of the Government schemes are for refund of taxes, and not really for making the business more profitable. Hence, these would not incentivise fresh investments and that too from new entrants.
What could be the solution!
To bring fresh approach to a stagnant industry, new entrepreneurs are a must and to encourage this, Government schemes have to be devised accordingly. At the same time, proper guidance and hand holding by existing players is also required rather than looking at these new players as just a competition.
Akhilesh Anand, MD, Carnation Creations, Coimbatore who is among the successful entrepreneurs to have grown in last few years, is of the view that first of all, any professional planning to start their own business should have clarity regarding what they wish to do and why. After this they should build partnership with like-minded people so that both the sides have a common vision and their team should also align with the same vision. He further adds that along with positive aspects, budding entrepreneurs have to think and plan for negative aspects also. “Whatever age a professional has, his/her thought process should be young, should have a knack for rapidly accepting the changes and be innovative at all levels,” he reasons.
A proper ecosystem having equal focus on export as well as domestic market should also exist to promote new players in this industry. With the recent labour reforms and strong focus on skill development, one can expect that managing labour, one of the most difficult aspects of the apparel manufacturing industry, will be easy in coming years. And it will help to attract entrepreneurs in the trade.
Dr. Biswajit Acharjya, Assistant Professor, Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India (Ahmedabad) agrees that Indian apparel manufacturing industry has been missing new entrepreneurs in the last couple of years in India. “The need is to strengthen and properly execute the labour law on a national level. Major textile and apparel units run on electricity which costs more compared to other mediums, especially CNG gas. At the same time, India is having limited water facilities in specific areas. We need to create sufficient water preservation through rainwater or recycling seawater. Infrastructure also needs to improve,” he says. He further adds that there is always a mismatch between the State and Central Government policies in India, which is again a concern. “Existing entrepreneurs should play an active role in mentorship for the new, like job training, grooming and assurance for future responsibility,” he argues.
Apart from Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India (EDII), there are other institutes in the country also dedicated to entrepreneurship like Institute of Entrepreneurship Development (IED), The National Institute for Entrepreneurship and Small Business Development (NIESBUD).There is a strong need to push for entrepreneurship, with a focus on the apparel sector.
Devangshu Dutta, CEO, Third Eyesight, a leading consultancy company, is of the view that the textile value chain has not really been seen as a strategic area by the Indian Government for many years, regardless of the political composition of the Government at the centre.
“Textile and apparel exports have grown at a compounded rate of around 7 per cent annually, a rate almost half of overall exports, when some other major sectors have grown 12-15 per cent, or even as high as 22 per cent annualised in the case of the automotive sector which was virtually non-existent in the export basket 20 years ago,” he says and further adds that India has some critical disadvantages against other competing nations – it is logistically distant from most developed markets, and it is not part of any trade bloc that would give it duty-free access.
To fight against these disadvantages, its natural advantages of entrepreneurship, design and product-development capability and vertical value chain need a lot of support. The Government must also stop seeing the sector in terms of its individual components (fibre, yarns, fabrics, apparel), and must see it as a chain in which we should be focused on the end-point (finished products) to maximise the value captured by India.
“There is no dearth of entrepreneurs in India, and the apparel business has relatively low barriers to entry. If the overall operating environment is cleaned up and made less cumbersome, our firms will do much better. A strategic push is also needed to be funded by the Government for technological upgradation of Indian apparel businesses, not only in terms of manufacturing but also in terms of the improvement of business processes, human capital and digitisation – it will not be expensive in the larger scheme of things but will go a long way in making Indian entrepreneurs and their teams better equipped to deal with the rapidly changing business environment,” he says.
Closing the debate on a thoughtful note, Deepak Mohindra, Editor-in-chief, Apparel Resources opines, “New ventures require professionals at its realm, those having the foresight to see and adapt to new consumer needs and changes and well-honed skills to take calculated risk. The existing stalwarts are largely not willing to take up this challenge, neither have they trained the generation next to take up these kinds of challenges. And that forms the basic handicap in building entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship. Building entrepreneurs requires not only a basic understanding of the industry but also support that has to come in from all quarters – Government, industry stalwarts and the banking system, which has to believe in them and back them as they have backed them in IT sector.”
Source: apparelresources
