Reliance to focus on Vimal brand to reach Rs 1,800 cr sales in 3yrs

Reliance Industries (Textiles Business) through its textile brand Vimal by positioning it as a youth-oriented affordable fashion label will be focusing to bring over 2-fold increase in sales to Rs 1,800 crore in the next three years.

The brand, which is also getting into ready-to-wear segment besides fabrics, is tapping young entrepreneurs and start-up co-founders to endorse the brand to connect with “new age Indian customers.

The company plans to invest Rs 350 crore in a phased-manner in the next three years to increase the capacity of production of high end fabric to 25 million metres a year from 20 million metres per year at present.

Reliance Industries Ltd CEO (Textiles Business) Pradeep Bhandari said that they have been focusing on product, branding and innovation for pushing growth of Vimal. They are looking for a retail sales of Rs 1,800 crore in next three years from their present base of Rs 800 crore.

The company, which has launched the Spring Summer collection for this season, is looking to have Vimal exclusive stores 150 in three years, up from 50 at present. These stores will be a mix of company-owned and franchise. There would also be shop-in-shop in Reliance Trends stores.

The company are also looking at expanding the reach of Vimal across all regions of India. Currently, Vimal is concentrated in East Indian states such as West Bengal and Bihar.

Bhandari, elaborating on the company’s strategy to promote the brand said that they want to position Vimal as a contemporary high-fashion product and yet affordable.

As of now, they have around 90 percent of sale of Vimal coming from fabrics and rest from apparels segment. In three years, they see it changing to 75:25. Vimal is also exported to different global markets, including US, Europe, Far East, Middle East and Africa.

Exports account for around 40 percent of the turnover. It will remain the same going forward as their focus will be on growing the brand in the domestic market. They have approached new age entrepreneurs to promote the product.

The company will be running Vimal ad campaigns featuring Zify Founder Anurag Singh Rathor, iD Fresh Food Co-founder Musthafa PC, Bankbazaar Founder Adhil Shetty, Local Banya Founder Karan Mehrotra and Chumbak Founder Vivek Prabhakar as it looks to connect with young aspiring Indians.