The textile arm of Reliance Industries has identified western India as one of its key focus areas for its trademark R|Elan textile, particularly centres such as Bhiwandi, Tarapur, Ichalkaranj, Malegaon, Navapur in Maharashtra and Surat, Ahmedabad, Vapi and Umbergaon in Gujarat. RIL is targeting 50-60 mills in these regions as part of its supply chain, the company said in a press release.
Currently, RIL is in the process of meeting 180-200 top brands, garmenters and exporters to showcase its R|Elan product range. On Friday, RIL announced its co-branding arrangement with fashion e-commerce player Myntra for its private label Mast & Harbour denim collection.
According to the press release, the Mast & Harbour denim collection is made from fabric using R|Elan FeelFresh technology that offers anti-microbial and anti-odour properties, as it is embedded with silver particles that inhibit bacterial growth.
"R|Elan FeelFresh is one of our flagship products and we are seeing a lot of acceptance for this technology among the leading apparel manufacturers and brands,” Gunjan Sharma, CMO - Polyester Business, RIL, said in the release.
Recently, RIL entered a partnership with VF Corporation of the US (which owns the Wrangler brand and is the largest branded denim manufacturer globally) to co-brand the Inficool denim range, made from Kooltex fabric, for the Spring-Summer 2018 collection in its Asian markets, namely China, India, Japan and Thailand.
The R|Elan co-branding exercise, the company forecasts, will give it a foothold in the ₹2,50,000-crore Indian apparel industry. R|Elan is an umbrella brand from RIL, encompassing a range of enhanced speciality fabrics. The company is forging plans to market it in all apparel segments – active wear, denim, formal wear and womenswear.
In the Indian apparel industry, the active wear segment has a 10-15 per cent, or ₹2,500 crore market share. Ethnic wear and sarees, the largest apparel sub-segment, commands a ₹60,000-crore share. The denim segment, currently worth ₹20,000 crore, is expected to grow at 14 per cent CAGR till 2020.