India: ‘Arvind Ltd. will touch 8 lakh pieces of apparel a month this year’

Rendezvous

India: ‘Arvind Ltd. will touch 8 lakh pieces of apparel a month this year’

Arvind Ltd has been defining and shaping many a collection and trendsetting styles across the ramps and retail outlets of the fashion capitals of the world. Today, the company is synonymous with a vast range of lifestyle products - be it fabrics or brands. In an interview with Shruti Karthikeyan, Richa Gautam, Chief Manager - Design and Development of Arvind Limited talks about the trends in the market and expansion plans of the company.

Which is your core product with Lycra?

One core product is intimate apparels, which we are doing with Lycra, and we do it for the major brands in Europe and the US. Now, we have started to explore ready-to-wear category where we are trying to introduce Lycra; we are trying out Lycra for ready-to-wear, sports category and in leggings especially for the Indian market.

How is business progressing at Arvind Ltd?

Arvind has two blocks namely fabric exports and complete garmenting. Complete garmenting is fairly small compared to fabric exports, but we are progressing in a big way. We are almost touching 8 lakh pieces a month now, which was 2-3 lakh pieces last year, so that is a rate at which we are growing now.

Our products are mostly Lyrcra-based. Of course, some of our customers opt for elastane fiber due to the price factor, but our normal product ranges uses Lycra. In terms of development, we are majorly in Thermolite, which is Invista's new product line and we have got very good leads for this. This is still at conversion stage, and we expect a huge market for this product, globally.

How has it been integrating with Invista?

Invista gives us a good platform because they do their marketing and we do ours and so when we approach our brands they are already informed about the Lycra product line. Buyers are familiar with the high performance of Invista products, and that helps. It has been beneficial coming together with Invista.

How are Lycra products progressing in terms of fashion?

Currently, we are into the Autumn/Winter 2014 collection for exports. Now in terms of fashion, I think about the Lycra stretch fabric and I see shapers playing a prominent role, though Arvind is not into shapers.

What are the expansion plans of Arvind?

Expansion plans are on track. We are also looking at expanding the product categories. In ready-to-wear there is lot of scope for the Autumn/Winter 2014 collection - stretch fleeces, sweat shirts, joggers, front zippers with a hoodie, tailored knit trousers, knitted shirts - in all of these Lycra plays in important role. Lycra, or stretch is trend-based, for both menswear and womenswear.

How is the leggings segment doing in the market?

Talking about leggings, Lycra is in fashion but it is also functional. Leggings market is India has grown exponentially, but it is a commodity market, a very price conscious market, where women want to buy a lot of this product, without paying extra. So, the good brands, and the high end brands use the Lycra tag, or free-fit Lycra or Coolmax for better absorbency, as a branding exercise.

Apart from Lycra, Arvind has a huge palette of product developments. Arvind is a cotton based company and in knits, the platform is wide and the end usage too. So we have kidswear, intimate apparels, ready-to-wear apparel, the all-over printed fabrics, and yarn dyed fabrics. What we are projecting in Autumn/Winter 2014 is a theme-based category - salt-and-pepper themes, reverse colors.