Interview with Bharat Ramesh Bulchandani

Bharat Ramesh Bulchandani
Managing Director
Attila Technologies

I only see 10 per cent of the fabrics manufactured being 100 per cent linen

Linen holds vast potential in India, because most of the linen in the country is not pure. Bharat Ramesh Bulchandani, Managing Director of Attila Technologies, discusses the linen industry in India with Fibre2Fashion.com

What challenges face the global linen industry? What are your five-fold measures to solve them?

The biggest challenge I see is the cost of linen fabric, which is three times the price of cotton fabric. So, to keep it competitive, people start using blends and remi-linen or synthetic linen. Another option is cotton slab, which looks like linen. But all of these kill the feel of pure linen. Linen as a fabric has so much depth and is yet so simple. It has so many benefits which people do not know of. Very few know that your skin breathes better in linen than it does even in cotton. My suggestions to solve the problem of cost include: 1. Increasing consumption will obviously help in more production and in cutting down costs 2. Not adding too much trim and contrast and just getting basic garments in place cuts cost. So eventually, the garment can be priced lower 3. Educating people via garment-wash labels etc about most of the linen sold in our country being not pure or complete linen, but being a blend

Please share some details about your new brand, Attila. How is it different from your other products?

Attila is a premium linen brand which caters to garments made of pure linen. The beauty of my brand is that it is one brand which only concentrates on the linen line. So, any garments coming from Attila will be linen-based. It is different from other products because many do not have the vision for linen fabric. Even if they do, it is not cost effective for them to cater to their existing clients, as it is almost three times the price of cotton fabric. So, many brands use blends. Most of the B category and below brands do not even use linen. They use look-alikes like cotton slub, which looks like linen but is not linen.

What market demography do you intend to capture with this brand in India?

The market is huge for my brand, as I only see 10 per cent of the fabrics manufactured being 100 per cent linen. The rest are either blends, look-alikes, remi-linens from China or cotton slubs. So, the potential is huge for us.

Please share some details on the investments made in this.

Investments till now are a mere ₹ 45 lakh for the first two collections, as it only covers one category which is shirts. By Fall 2016, we will be introducing trousers and shorts in linen. Private funding is available to us any time, depending on the demand for the products.

Are there any specific strategies in place for the promotion of this brand?

We are launching this brand only via e-commerce websites. With that, we get good visibility spread as well, as we are going to outsource our marketing and PR to a reputed agency to feed our brand on social media.

What is your market value at the current stage? What is the expected rise with the establishment of this brand?

Being a new launch, it is rather small. I cannot compare it to other brands as it is unique to have a brand that is completely linen-based. The market for linen is huge, not just in India but all over the world.

Published on: 07/12/2015

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.