Innovation is synonymous with the Sangam Group
Sangam India Limited, has floated a 100 per cent subsidiary Sangam Lifestyle ventures Ltd for its retail business. The new subsidiary mainly focuses on developing new exclusive chain of stores under C9 brand name.
What does C9 stand (in the name of your brand C9) for?
The group's most recent offering for women is C9. C9 symbolises the multiple facets of a woman's life; the spaces she navigates every day and the forms in which she expresses herself. It encompasses the essence of what it means to be a woman through a myriad of roles, which she performs in her everyday life. C9 caters to the needs of the urban woman from 9 to 9 with C standing for classy, comfort, and casual clothing. C9 has recently launched the Airwear range - the ultimate next-gen apparel for women. Designed to sculpt the body and lend firmness to form, it takes the shape of the body's curves, feeling like second skin. The concept has been incorporated in all of C9's leisurewear, activewear and innerwear garments. Contemporary and stylish, C9 aspires to establish a new outlook for the woman of today, who is fuss-free and always on the move.
What will be the brand differential?
From the fabric and design to comfort and convenience, the C9 brand symbolises, style, ease of wear, comfort, instils confidence, and lends more than a touch of style. C9 garments are made from hi-tech technology imported from Santoni, Italy in form of circular knit machine; the multitude of style and colours can be put together to create beautifully designed products that bring about perfect amalgamation of fashion and functions creating ultimate satisfaction to the users. C9 garments are meant to wear from 9 am to 9 pm, whether it is at home- afternoon, evening, outing, shopping, and college, at work or a get-together.
What has been your growth story in textiles?
Prominent among the undertakings of the Sangam Group is its textiles venture, which includes yarn, fabric, fancy denim and seamless garments, and is known for its voluminous operations and modern infrastructure. Situated at Bhilwara in Rajasthan, it includes the spinning division, considered the largest PV-dyed yarn industry in the world, and contributes to a large extent to the group's earnings.
Who are your main clients for exports?
The Sangam Group, with its 3-star export house status, exports $50 million to more than 30 countries. Some of the noteworthy overseas clients include Oguz Textil (Turkey), Vanden Berghe Roger NV (Belgium), TBM Textil Bezero De Menezes (Brazil), Melmar Knit Wear Company (Egypt), EDPA (US) and Bossa Ticaret Ve Sanayi Islatmeri (Turkey).
Isn't the market in these three categories very crowded with big names like Nike, Puma, Adidas, Fila, Reebok and Indian ones like HRX, Proyog, Yepme, Pretty Secrets, etc?
Yes, it is. The market is very crowded; however, the retail industry in the country is growing and brands are looking to better options to reach out to the customer. C9's EBO in Mumbai will serve its wide clientele, while the upcoming stores aim at increasing the brand's retail footprint across the country. While C9 will be present through MBOs and large-format stores, we believe that our EBO will cater to women who would like to better understand our products.
How many different products do you have in leisure, inner and active wear?
Leisurewear: Fashion tops, fashion leggings, fashion capris and fashion t-shirts.
Activewear: Sports bra, active t-shirt, active tank top, active capri, active leggings, cycling shorts.
Intimatewear: Bra, panties, camisole, shapewear
Why did it take so long to start the B2C arm since the parent company Sangam Group started in 1984 and C9 in 2015?
The group's textile venture had set the pace for our foray into the B2C space, though all operations were being managed by specific distributors.
How big is the flagship store recently launched in Mumbai?
C9's flagship store in Lokhandwala, Mumbai is approximately 600 square feet. This store houses all of C9's products. Our customers will be pampered for choice with not only the current Spring-Summer 2016 collection, but also the apparel from the ones to come. The store was launched in July 2016. We opened one more in Bhatinda in August 2016, which is a franchisee outlet.
What will be the impact of FDI, GST as also the recently-announced textiles package? And what do you hope from the national textiles policy, as and when it is announced?
The textiles industry has always been open to the idea of 100 per cent FDI in the textiles and apparel industry as it will only help the industry. Retail FDI is sure to magnetise brands with a long-term foray into the Indian market. As smart and acceptable prices make consumers happy, it will also help maintain a balance between buyers and sellers, while also encouraging manufacturing capabilities.
But, with the introduction of GST, the man-made textiles segment expects a "level-playing field" w.r.t. cotton textiles. At present, man-made fibres attract a 12 per cent excise duty, while cotton fibres attract none. This duty disparity has distorted the domestic consumption pattern in favour of the cotton fibre, contrary to global trends. Man-made fibre-based products (with GST) will be more competitive vis-a-vis textiles items made of cotton fibres. This will be a good policy push, in sync with the global realities. However, both cotton and man-made fibres are also subject to 4-5 per cent state VAT, which will be subsumed by the GST. Sangam India will be major beneficiary of GST.
The textiles package has given a special boost to the sector with an expectation of attracting more investments and enhancing exports. This is a great opportunity to make our mark as a brand, as we can now make products more competitive with a reduced cost of production. The textiles business contributes 30-40 per cent of the total business. Our group now focuses heavily on fashion.
What is the kind of machinery that you use?
Innovation is synonymous with the Sangam Group, which believes in setting the bar very high when it comes to quality and customer comfort. This has led to flagship brands Sangam Suitings and Sangam Denim becoming the most trusted brands among premium textiles. To stay ahead, the group invests heavily in the most modern machinery for all its projects. This has led to the group being recognised among the most modern textile complexes in India. Sangam's yarn-production units are equipped with latest machineries to ensure better capacity utilisation, greater credibility, better quality and lower downtime, leading to greater efficiencies and lower production costs.
At Bhilwara, a state-of-the-art facilities plant produces synthetic and blended dyed/grey spun yarn, cotton yarn and fabrics (synthetics blended denim and knitted fabrics) with 96,864 spindles at the Biliya Kalan unit and 1,15,008 & 3128 spindles & rotors at Sareri unit. The company uses machinery from Trutzschler, Schlafhorst, Howa, Toyota, Murata, Muratec, Rieter and Savio to name a few.
In the yarn division, the majority of machines are of Laxmi Machines Works while the fabrics division is equipped with the latest technology and state-ofthe-art computerised designing looms like high-speed air jet looms (models include Somet Mythos, Toyota Tappet and Jacquard, Picanol and Tsudakoma), P7100 Sulzer Tappet and jacquard looms and dornier jacquard looms to produce one of the finest fabrics in the polyester/viscose, polyester/cotton, pure cotton, PV lycra and polyester woollen segments. The division has 251 looms with annual production capacity of 30 million metres of fabric.
The process division is equipped with the latest machinery like automatic jigger, cold pad batch machine, jet dyeing and beam dyeing machines and kier decatising and super finish machines.
Which are the other tier-I and tier-II cities selected this year for retail outlets?
C9 plans to open 15-20 stores in the major tier-I and tier-II towns in the next one year. The tier-I cities are Delhi, Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Pune and another in Mumbai, which will be our flagship stores that will give customers an experiential feel, and we will also look for franchisees to penetrate the market.
What is the breakup of the 100,000 per day garments production of yours?
The production breakup of the garments is approximately: leisurewear: 30,000 pieces; activewear: 25,000 pieces; and innerwear: 45,000 pieces.
What is the composition of the breathable fabric used, and how different is it from fabrics used by other brands?
The seamless garments are a fine blend of polyamide, spandex and viscose. Polyamide is used as a base fabric, which is light and comfortable for day-to-day activities. It also has performance features like odour resistance and moisture management. Indian consumers today want more than just need-based clothing. In addition to old parameters like basic functionality, comfort and price, better look, perfect fit, and trendiness have also become key purchase parameters. We at C9 are constantly making innovations in our products with regard to design, colour selection options, and fibre mix.
Will there be any shop-in-shop outlets?
At present, we do not have any shop-in-shop outlets. However, we are exploring this opportunity as well
From where are the yarns sourced, and what are the different types of yarns?
Sangam India is a backward integrated company and its division Sangam Spinners is one of the largest manufacturers of polyester viscose dyed yarn in South Asia with 2,25,168 spindles and 3128 rotors that produces polyester, viscose dyed, blended yarn and 100 per cent cotton yarn separately.
What steps do you take to ensure that manufacturing units are environment friendly?
The group follows strict quality norms and ethical production process in all its plants. The environment policies, labour norms are based on moral legitimacy, equity, equality and transparency for the safeguard of people, environment and health. Our plants have a number of compliance certifications: United Registrar of Systems Certification, Accordia Global Compliance Group, Health and Safety Management System, Intertek, Hohenstein Textile Testing Institute, Sedex Certification and Advanced Certification Ltd.
What has been the sale on C9fashion.com vis-à-vis the other e-commerce sites?
The sales on our portal and other sites have been very encouraging. It is a new brand; but in the future, our platform will be the driving model.
Is the fabric made by the company or sourced from abroad?
Fabric-weaving is an in-house activity.
Which product-line out of the three categories does well?
Our focus has been on leisurewear, followed by active and subsequently innerwear.
What is the company turnover?
This is initial year of operations at C9. Hence, it is too early to mention the turnover, but we are looking at 30 per cent growth in the first year, and we are hopeful and optimistic of more.
What are your advertising, marketing and promotional plans? What is the budget?
The marketing spread plans to have over a 100 EBOs in the next three years and over 3000 MBOs across the length and breadth of India, along with plans to reach out to most of the large-format stores, malls and modern retail stores. It will also be available on most of the e-platforms apart from C9's own website: www. c9fashion.com. The brand's TVC is reaching out to audiences showcasing the true international standard that the apparel brings to the Indian market. Shot in Bangkok with international models, it aims at carving a space for itself at the top of the audience's mind. We may look at fashion weeks too in the future. The budgets for marketing and promotional activities are substantial enough to build a brand, and it is in the region of 12-13 per cent of the turnover.
Who designs the garments?
We have highly skilled and creative in-house designers who design the entire range of C9.
How many collections are made in a year?
C9 works in two major seasons and two short seasons-namely Spring-Summer and AutumnWinter, and pre-monsoon and pre-winter. The C9 range of garments boasts of its design, style, comfort, durability, support, and fit, and every season has a unique theme-based collection inspired by international style and fashion.
Do you have a loyalty programme?
We are working towards a loyalty programme, and would be in a better position to comment only after the plan is frozen.
Are there any unusual promotions planned since the market is so crowded?
The company plans to promote sales at high-end organisations and meeting places, and through corporate houses with special offers for female executives.
How many styles are there in each collection?
Every single collection is unique with approximately 80-100 styles.
How do you plan to compete in the three categories since there are foreign and Indian competitors who are very strong?
The prices of products have been deliberately given a competitive edge to make it available to anyone who aspires for it-may be collegians or working women, or upper bracket young women.
What is the projected turnover by 2020?
We are looking at a projected turnover of around `250-300 crore by 2020 for C9.
Did you do a survey before opting for these three womenswear categories? What did the research tell you before the launch of the brand?
Yes. We carried out a survey before entering the market. According to sources, the Indian retail market looks very promising and is estimated to be $600 billion and one of the top five retail markets in the world by economic value. India is one of the fastest growing retail markets in the world, with 1.2 billion people.
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