ABC Apparels, the makers of Venfield men’s wear, has drawn up plans to raise its sales volume, as well as production capacity, threefold in the next two years, said a top official.
“Currently, we are producing 1.5 lakh garments per month and we would like to grow three times,” said Jagdish Prasad Sarda, chairman, ABC Apparels Pvt. Ltd. “We are present in 12 states and plans are on to add five more states.”
Started by Mr. Sarda with a single showroom and two manufacturing units in Chennai in 1994, ABC Apparels now boasts of revenue close to ₹100 crore. It now has 50 stores of its own, 750 multi-brand outlets and 1,000 dealers serving more than two crore customers. “Today..., we compete with the likes of Peter England and Otto. We will be introducing women’s wear too after two years,” he said.
The firm has been posting 15-20% annual growth. This year, it is eyeing sales growth of 25% due to the roll-out of a new range of men’s wear. “My vision is to double production volume to 3.5 lakh garments a month by March 2019 and 5 lakh garments by March 2020. About 50% of the production will happen in-house and rest will be outsourced from Bengaluru, Tiruppur, Ludhiana and Mumbai.” As per the expansion plan, the number of stores will increase from 50 to 150 by March 2018 and to 250, the following year. Most of the new stores will be opened in metros, suburbs, Tier-II and Tier-III cities. As the company follows asset-light model, most of the stores will be run on franchisee basis.
On the Goods and Services Tax, he said there had been an increase in the tax slab from 5% to 12%. However, the firm has not increased prices.
The company’s export markets include Malaysia, West Asia, Singapore and Sri Lanka. “Today, exports constitute 5% of total revenue and plans are on to triple it to 15% in two years, by expanding the number of outlets in Malaysia,” he said.
