Mafatlal to foray into apparel; aims to regain past glory

“We want to make a strong foray into the apparel business and for this we have identified three-four anchor categories,” Aniruddha Deshmukh, MD and CEO of Mafatlal Industries, told media persons in Chandigarh.

“Mafatlal countrywide is known for its whites and we want to bring it in readymade,” Deshmukh said. Another anchor category would be denims, as Mafatlal has been manufacturing denim fabric for nearly 20 years now. T-shirts would also be a focus of Mafatlal’s readymade clothing, according to Deshmukh.

Explaining the strength of the company, he said, “Our main strength is fabrics. We are one of the large manufacturers of denim in the country, and we also supply to domestic brands and international brands.

“The other large business we have is textiles, where we do basically shirting fabrics, whites and prints ... we are also doing school uniforms and the size of this business is about Rs 300 crore.”

Elaborating further on the decision to foray into garments, he said, “As a fabric company, at some point of time it will need to make an entry into the readymade segment. It is sort of a re-launch for us because the brand has been around for some time, but somehow never got the traction or momentum… Our intention is that we convert our expertise and skill in fabrics into readymade.”

Mafatlal has good retail presence in the western India. “But we are now going to expand into regions including north, where we see a good scope,” said Deshmukh. (RKS)

Fibre2Fashion News Desk – India