Kalyani Innerwear Pvt. Ltd., which was incorporated in 2000, has come a long way. In an exclusive interaction with Lace n Lingerie, Mr. Suresh Kumar Gulati, MD, Kalyani Innerwear, shares the success journey of the company and plans of its future ahead.
Take us through the journey of Kalyani Innerwear.
Kalyani Innerwear Pvt. Ltd. was incorporated in 2000. The company was established with the objective of manufacturing high quality innerwear with competent price in the market. We started our company from a small room with 10 employees. In 2006-07, we shifted to Tronica city with 100 employees.
The years starting from2007 to 2019 witnessed the acceleration of the company’s growth steadily to the present scenario where we now have our step up in 2 lakh sq.ft. area with separate exclusive departments dealing with packing, designing, raw material, QC, cutting, etc. with enhanced operational and managerial efficiency.
Currently, we have 400 employees on roll and 800 contractual employees. We have a pan-India market network with 225 engaged distributor channel. The company is engaged in the manufacturing of the product ranges comprising Kalyani, Klingerie, Kalyani Panty, Mashie, and has a production capacity of 65,000 pieces per day for all products.
What’s your assessment about the growing innerwear market in India?
The innerwear category has seen an expansion-oriented transition from being a basic requirement to designer wear with major emphasis on styling and comfort. The market for innerwear product variations like seamless intimates, plus size innerwear, body shape enhancer, etc., is undergoing remarkable expansion in both metros and mini-metro market dimensions. The proliferation of women’s innerwear market is owing to greater consumer awareness about hygiene, fashion trends, behavioural traits, purchasing patterns and lifestyle activities.
What are the factors propelling the growth of innerwear?
The factors responsible for accelerating the growth of innerwear include: Incorporating Quality standards of the product and providing it at a reasonable price to ensure its affordability, better management of company, upgradation of the product with the latest fashion and trends, being conscious of what perfect sizing and fittings means with greater emphasis on consumer satisfaction, having a stricter quality control programmes, and a wider distribution network.
What are the latest trends shaping up the market?
The Indian lingerie market no longer remains confined to a silent segment and has seen an eminent evolution with attracting a larger number of women confidently demanding innovation, comfort and elegance in the lingerie market This has also given brands an opportunity to experiment with designs, cuts, colours, prints, laces, style, perfect size, etc.
Who is your target audience?
We target 70 per cent audience from middle and upper middle class.
What are your current range and the pricing?
We have different ranges and categories of our product with price chart ranging between INR 150 and 550.
The company has recently opened a state-of-the-art factory at Ghaziabad. Share some details, on the type of production facilities you have, the kind of machinery,production capacity, workers training, etc.
The company provides following facilities and worker training:
1. Hygienic work environment
2. Cafeteria
3.Training and development programme
4. Employee Engagement programme
5. Employee welfare programme
6. Well defined standard operating procedures.
The production facility and machinery we have is as under:
1.Cutting – CAD, Auto cutter and we are also planning to buy auto spreader in the future.
2.Stitching – Stare of the art automatic and semi automatic machines
3.Packing – using conveyor belt
The company having a production capacity of 65,000 pieces per day for both bra and panty sets.
What are the major challenges that you often face in setting up this factory? How do you overcome them?
The major challenges while setting up the factory is to find skilled labor. To overcome the same, we have started a training and development programme for upgrading the skills of our existing workforce. We are upgrading from manual to automated machines for the dual motive of ease of work and effective time management
How do you see the brand developing from here?
1. Advertisement
2.Online marketing expansion
3. Multi brand outlets target for sale
4. Technical improvement of product.
5. Provide a international level product to our customers with value for money
Where do you see the next opportunity going forward?
We are keeping ourselves exclusively focused to the innerwear market to further tap its growth potential which motivates us to incorporate and improve with newer innovations, design and comfort aligning with its price affordability.
What are the expansion plans?
We aim to increase our sales by 25-30 per cent. per cent every year.
