The $1.7 billion (approx Rs 11,560 crore) Arvind Ltd is looking to scale up its B2C (business to consumer) business, which includes fabrics and ready to wear garments, to Rs 1,500 crore in the next four to five years.
The B2C segment, which comprises men's and women's wear, is currently a Rs 700-crore business. Of this, men's wear accounts for close to Rs 400 crore, and the remaining being women's wear is sold under the brand Ankur, said Susheel Kaul, CEO, Lifestyle Fabrics - Knits & Wovens.
"We forayed into ready to wear business about two months ago and we hope this to pick up in the days to come. While the men's wear alone is expected to grow to Rs 1,000 crore; put together (men's and women's) it will be Rs 1,500 crore in the next four to five years," Kaul told newspersons on the sidelines of a press conference to announce the launch of its festive collection here on Wednesday.
The company has around 10,000 retail touch points, including exclusive stores and multibrand outlets.
Focus on garmenting
The knits and wovens, which is a Rs 3,000-crore business, accounts for nearly 50 per cent of the company's total textiles business.
According to Kaul, a major share (nearly Rs 2600 crore) of this segment is the B2B business primarily targeted at the export market. A significant portion of the business is sale of fabric with garments accounting for only 10 per cent of the total volume produced.
Plans are afoot to scale up the share of garments (to total fabric produced) to 40-50 per cent in the next five years.
"We produce 300 million metres of fabric; of this only 10 per cent (close to 30 million metres) is turned into garments. We would like to take this up to 40-50 per cent over the next four to five years," he said.
The company is looking to invest Rs 1,500 crore over the next three years to set up manufacturing facilities to ramp up production.
"By increasing the share of garments, we expect our profitability to improve as we will be upgrading on the value chain," he said.