Interview with Manish Mandhana

Manish Mandhana
Joint Managing Director
Mandhana Industries Ltd.

Europeans can pay a better price compared to Americans.

Mr. Manish Mandhana talks about the Indian textile industry with respect to the global market with Mary Christine Joy. Synopsis: Mandhana Industries Ltd. has become a key player in the Indian textile and apparel industry. From a modest turnover of INR 60cr in FY2002, the diversified textile and apparel manufacturing company has achieved a turnover of over INR 1300 crores in FY 12-13 and a market cap of over INR 900 crores. The company has the global licensee to design, market and distribute the Being Human clothing brand, for celebrity Salman Khan and his charity 'Being Human - The Salman Khan Foundation'. Manish has been leading the 6000+ member organization for over 20 years. In his leadership, his keen understanding of fashion, an eye for detail and passion to excel has won over many clients and made him a recognized name among the players in the European fashion industry. He is an avid traveler with an interest in learning world languages. He thoroughly enjoys adventure sports whenever he can take some time out of his packed schedule. Excerpts:

Mandhana Industries is a renowned name in the Indian textile industry today. Can you tell us something about your company, its strengths and weaknesses?

We are a vertically integrated company in helm of fashion, our USP is our designing abilities to create new trends in fashion supported by a world class manufacturing infrastructure. This gives us the strength to produce premium quality of textiles and apparels with speed and price effectiveness.

We all know that you are an aggressive marketer. Being associated with a celebrity (Salman Khan Foundation) reaps immense benefits. Is that a part of your marketing strategy too? How much has this marketing strategy helped Mandhana Industries overall?

Our recent foray into retail has certainly rewarded us in terms of recognition. Being Human brand is a relatively new edition in our current ongoing business. Fortunately, it's also turned out to be a huge success in a very short span of time and is definitely one of our fastest growing business. Being always at the backend of activities as manufacturers, Being Human has certainly got us into the fore front and the world has noticed the organization behind this brand. So, in a way it has got us the deserved recognition.

You seem to be a staunch supporter of modernization and technology in the textile industry. How modernized is the Indian textile industry according to you? Where can the scenario be further improved?

Thanks to the government of India for introducing TUF Scheme (Technology Upgradation Fund). Since the inception of this scheme there have been huge investments in the last decade into the Indian textile space with latest technology and modern equipments to produce international standard quality products. But India being a diverse country, we still have a big mix of age old handlooms and power loom industries which enables us to produce specialized value added products as well, which has its own demand in the global market. There is still a lot of scope for improvement if the government support is extended in the form of giving further benefits and concessions to boost the textile industry which is the second largest employer (as an industry) in the country. Integrated textile parks and zones should be created, relaxed labour laws and skillupgradation institutes can be created in order to bring in the required talent to fuel the growth of the industry.

Now with a business friendly party ruling the country, do you suppose the infrastructural problems and power crisis (that has remained a major issue in the Indian textile industry) will resolve to a considerable extent?

Well, the nation has voted for a change, for the last 5 years or so textile industry went through multiple problems due to various factors such as, inflation, no government support, power crisis, expensive fuel, volatile cotton prices and stringent labour laws, resulting in tremendous pressure on the industry and its health. The new government should only improve the conditions from here on and as per the textile policies announced by the Union Textile Minister, the plan is to increase the textile exports from current 34 billion USD to 300 billion by 2024-25 which itself is a positive sign, provided the government does enough to achieve this target. So we are looking at positive times ahead.

Unlike textiles, you seem to target only the niche market in garment and apparel. Is that true? Please elaborate your answer.

Yes it's true that we are always looking to add more value to our business. In recent years textile business has got commoditized to a great extent and the companies are struggling to achieve a healthy bottom line with such a tough business environment. The neighboring competition like Bangladesh and Pakistan enjoy the benefits of falling under FTA agreement with the western countries (the import from these 2 countries is duty free into the western markets), resulting in India losing out on core business. We chose to focus more on specialized textiles and apparels which would fetch a better price in domestic and international markets. So our focus has always been being a design centric organization where we can fetch better realization for our products for being different and unique with our multi fibre product basket.

I would like to quote one of your earlier statements - "Most of the Indian exporters are US centric and hence in European markets, we don't have much competition from Indian counterparts." Are Indian exporters largely concentrated on the US market? Is European market a better option for Indian exporters?

Yes, it's true that the majority of Indian apparel exports are to USA for it being a bigger consumer market than Europe and its more basic and core in nature. In order to work with Europe which is a much more premium and design centric market compared to USA, companies have to elevate their product offerings by adding more innovation and being more premium, as europeans can pay a better price compared to americans.However, the american market is reviving again which is a good sign. Somehow, over the years we have developed good relationships and rapport with a lot of top European brands and chains, resulting in our business being mainly concentrated in Europe but we are open to work in any part of the world provided we find good synergy with the partner.

You have bagged several awards and recognitions for the company in your tenure. What awards and recognitions do you target for the near future?

The awards and recognition have only encouraged and motivated us to excel further, as a company you create a certain benchmark for yourself, more awards and accolades will only help us to set better standards for us.

What advice would you give to budding textile entrepreneurs in the country?

The textile business can only be run with a lot of passion, teamwork and deep knowledge. It's very important to understand and get the basics right in order to run it efficiently. In this business if you have to create a great balance with all the important factors including technology, innovation, efficiency and execution in order to make it successful, and to top it all, a constant drive to experiment and create new ideas with product development. This industry also helps us to create more jobs which is required for a young nation like us.

Published on: 25/08/2014

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.