Change is constant…, and also a strategy for survival and growth. Mumbai-based 22 years old buying house Kalp Exim too adopted the same system to change. Earlier working mainly with wholesalers, the company is now focusing on working with resorts, spas and hotels and those who have their own outlets. In last eight months, it is able to add almost 50 such clients in three countries – Maldives, Mauritius and Bali.
Working with 30 vendors and expecting 10 to 15 per cent growth this year, Kalpesh Kabra, Partner of the company told Apparel Online, “We are offering customized products (pario, kurta with embroidery, stoll, home textiles) to this segment which is comparatively new for us. Some of these clients are having world-renowned hotels and resorts. There orders are very small, but we are doing it happily as there is comparatively good margin. Products for these clients are also high-end.”
Kalpesh also added that as the wholesale business is shifting towards Bangladesh due to duty advantages, for us such kinds of niche or different business models is need of the hour. We are happy with the response of our new initiative. In-fact we are now focusing more on the same and our target is to work more directly with retailers with reasonable number of stores rather than wholesalers.
Kalpesh is concerned about overall current business scenario, be it demonetization in India or China’s increasing footprints in manufacturing of high-end garments. “Due to demonetization, cost of apparel manufacturing is going to increase as some segments in this system will force the change of ‘improper working’. Secondly, India is already missing on availability for good fabrics as far as high-end garments are concerned. While such fabrics for high-end garments is strength of China, while too is increasing its manufacturing for high-end garments.
