There is obviously a shift in trend in the Indian innerwear market from a price sensitive to a fashion quotient market. The Rupa Group is strengthening its position in premium and super-premium segments by licensing of foreign brands like ‘FCUK’, ‘Fruit of the Loom, Inc.’, a New York Corporation, and WOS of Berkshire Hathaway Company, to manufacture, distribute, advertise and sell innerwear and outerwear products for men, boys, women, girls and toddlers in India under their brand names and marks.
The company achieved a turnover of Rs. 1,084.22 crore in FY 2016-17, as against Rs. 1,013.03 crore in 2015-16, registering a growth of 7.03%. It has over 18 sub-brands and 8,000 SKUs (stock keeping units) having a strong brand recall. In order to nurture its brands, Rupa has been consistently involved in robust advertisement and brand promotion activities, thereby spending extensively on brand communication.
In the innerwear industry, Rupa is a leader having a distribution network across India. It has a PAN-India presence with a large distribution network consisting of four central warehouses, six EBOs (exclusive brand outlets), 20 branches, 1,000 dealers and more than 1, 18,000 retailers. It is also looking at enhancing availability through presence in e-commerce, MBOs (multi-brand outlets) and LFRs (large format retail stores).
Rupa caters to all segments, including men, women and kids with its wide bouquet of brands. The various sub-brands of the company include Frontline, Jon, Air, Macroman, Macroman M series, Macrowoman W series, Euro, Bumchums, Torrido, Thermocot, Kidline, Footline, Soline, etc., catering to various segments, under its umbrella brand ‘Rupa’. The brands are endorsed by leading celebrities, including Hrithik Roshan, Ranveer Singh, Sidharth Malhotra and Bipasha Basu.
The Indian innerwear market is estimated to grow at 13% to reach Rs. 59,540 crore by 2023. Innerwear appears to be a potential growth category. The men’s innerwear market contributes 40% and is characterized by the presence of numerous Indian and international brands. The male innerwear segment contributes approximately 87% of the company’s business. Presently, the company is catering to female innerwear space through its brands Jon, Soline and Macrowoman W Series. The company is continuously striving at strengthening its female innerwear segment as well and is open to grow in this segment through the inorganic route also in the domestic market. The business opportunity in women’s innerwear is huge, as it comprises 60% of the total Indian innerwear market in value terms and is growing at a brisk pace of 15%, as compared to the average industry growth rate of 12%.
The overall growth of the company across India depends on its innovative designs, superior product quality, ability to create a sustainable business model, initiatives to nurture the in-house talent and the zeal towards healthy creation of stakeholders’ value. The company revisits its marketing strategies from time to time. It has always been responsive towards the changing fashion needs by introducing new line of products across all segments.
Rupa intends to keep itself asset light by outsourcing low end and labor intensive work in the manufacturing process. The company procures yarn, does dyeing in-house, carries out knitting process partly in-house, design and cutting in-house and outsources stitching, which is labor intensive through job work (90% of job work). On the other hand, it utilizes its resources in key areas involving value addition, product differentiation, branding and distribution.
– Apparel and Textile News, Apparel Talk, Indian Apparel
