The brand is always a perception and the main focus is on the product...
Harkirat Singh is the Managing Director of Woodland Worldwide, an outdoor brand by Aero Group. He shares his words of wisdom with Fibre2fashion Correspondent Manushi Gandhi.
Synopsis:
Woodland has established itself as renowned outdoor brand that started its operations in India in 1992. Currently, Woodland runs a network of 380 exclusive stores worldwide. It has also undertaken many CSR activities to encourage youth to have an environment friendly approach. The brand already exists in many markets across the world and now is all set to be launched in Australia.
Mr. Singh graduated from University of Delhi and went to Russian State University of Trade and Economics. Later, he went to Harvard Business School for Executive Education. Mr. Singh's acute perception of the market trends has assisted him to sustain the volume of business even in times of downturns in the market, period of recession, keeping the brand on top, ahead of all competition.
Excerpts:
Tell us about your journey as a businessman.
We started from Quebec in Canada and came to India in early 90’s. That was the time when the retail sector in India was not very organized. During the initial stage we did a lot of research on consumer preferences and studied the market we planned to enter. Being a new brand, we decided to retail through retailers like Bata and Carona, and today we have our chain of retail stores spread across the world. We were keen to associate with retailers who were willing to experiment with completely new category- 'Outdoor & adventure’. The only reliability with us was the quality of products we had to offer.
What are your views about the prospects of ethical sourcing in the apparel industry?
Woodland is striving to be a sustainable brand, using recycled post consumer and post industrial waste products simply by improving technologies and reducing the use of harsh chemicals and excess materials while upholding the product quality. The company upholds it's position in the green movement by partnering with many environmentally conscious partners such as Leave No Trace, UNICEF, WWF, Lufthansa and many more.
We have been constant in our effort to be environment friendly and sustainability. In this direction we have started listing the eco index on our products and educate our customers on the amount of carbon footprint that they are leaving with each Woodland product. Our effort is to be carbon neutral by 2015.
For a brand to survive, it has to connect nature and customers, so we promote a lot of eco friendly activities. The customer today is very receptive on these products and we want to increase the level of awareness.
What prospects do you see in the global luxury apparel market?
The market in India is very virgin. Certain markets like USA, Europe are having recessionary effect and are quite saturated market for the luxury apparels, but the developing countries have got a lot to give. The growth in US is not increasing and is very stable. The developed countries are looking at the growth of countries like India, China and Middle East. These countries have a good demand in luxury segment. There is a lot of action in the developing markets.
The ups and down in China’s textile sector/economy have an impact on the other countries. Please present your views on this statement.
China has always been a robust manufacturing nation, so it does have an impact on other nations. There are lot of organizations and brands, which are totally dependant on China as their sourcing partner. As its economy is becoming more open, with less of controls, for example the recent increase in labour cost etc. will definitely increase the price of goods that are dependant on it. The nation is considered as good destination for sourcing of raw materials.
What is the most important factor for building a strong brand image and getting more and more loyal customers?
The brand is always a perception and the main focus is on the product. The company has to give them the best product made with superior quality raw materials. Unless, the product is not good, you cannot build a brand image. The product has to be technical, functional as well as fashionable. While buying a piece the customer should feel that it is value for money.
According to you, which segment of the society helps the industry to do a better business?
The age group of 17-25 years is kept in focus while we are producing because these are the people who innovate, influence and create trends. The youngsters are always ready to try out new concepts and new styles, which increases the scope of business. They also have a good potential to influence others in the matter of style. With a new fashion statement they can influence their young siblings, friends as well as colleagues.
What has been a major achievement of woodland in online retailing?
According to our observation, there is an increase in online selling of lifestyle products like shoes, apparels etc. People are gradually moving to online shopping rather than going to stores to experience the product. Customers don’t have so much time, nowadays, to go to the crowded market and malls. We have got a good response for this on our own website as well as our partners in online retailing. The actual sales of Woodland through Internet shopping are still very minute when compared to showroom sales. Both of them will remain parallel in working and cannot replace each other.
Technology is revolutionizing the textile/apparel/fashion industry all over the world. What trends do you visualize in the coming times, for the industry?
More than being a fashion brand, we are a technical brand. All the brands that are innovative and technology based have an upper edge. I also believe technology in garment as well as shoe making has become unavoidable. The technology has advanced so much when it comes to store management. The billing procedure, stock and sales records etc. have become a smooth process with the help of technology.
Also I feel technology gives some or the other innovation every other day so it’s very unpredictable to say what will be the next.
Going through various media reports it was noted that the company targeted a turnover of 800 crores by March 2013. What is the latest update regarding this?
As we are almost on the closure of this financial year and we have already crossed an annual revenue of 8 billion rupees, I can predict that Woodland will be over achieving the target this year. It might go upto 8.5 billion rupees. We have been seeing an average annual growth of 250-300 million rupees for the last five years. I feel that one should be cautious and realistic while focusing on the growth.
Published on: 20/03/2013
DISCLAIMER: All views and opinions expressed in this column are solely of the interviewee, and they do not reflect in any way the opinion of Fibre2Fashion.com.
