Think global, act local: How these entrepreneurs tasted success by cracking the code
This week, SMBStory picks three Indian brands that are coming up with innovative and international thinking, marrying it with local manufacturing.
The saying ‘think globally but act locally’ is not just limited to the environment but also businesses.
How does a desi brand find a global footing? This formula lies simply in coming up with innovative and international thinking and marrying it with local manufacturing.
This week, SMBStory picks three Indian brands disrupting their sectors by manufacturing domestically and adopting an international approach.
Madame
Akhil Jain, Executive Director, Madame
In the 1980s, entrepreneur CL Duggar Jain realised that the Indian market for Western-style women’s clothing was ruled by Chinese and Thai imports. He noticed there was no Indian company making such apparel for women. This is when the idea of capitalising on this gap occurred to him.
He saw an opportunity and realised that his family business firm Jain Amar, a clothing company, can be a launchpad for such products in India. Duggar relied on his vast experience in the textiles industry. His entrepreneurial journey had begun in the pre-Independence era when he started Jain Amar in 1939 in Gurugram.
Duggar took the plunge and launched Madame, a brand to manufacture Western-style women’s clothing in 1993, under the parent company Jain Amar. He roped in his grandsons Sunil and Bipan to run the new venture.
“When Madame started, the business did great in knitwear and customers knew the brand for its winter’s collection. We wanted to evolve with the changing needs of our customers, and hence decided to grab attention by starting a summer collection,” Akhil Jain, Executive Director of Madame adds.
Groversons
Siddharth Grover, Director, Groversons
Lingerie shopping in India was a hush-hush thing that meant spelling doom, if spoken loudly. But today, times have changed. The taboo of lingerie shopping is broken and consumers are more open about it. In addition, women are now aspiring for a variety of options in the women’s innerwear market.
One of the oldest companies in the women’s innerwear sector that witnessed this changing world is Paris Beauty. It was started by Chaman Lal Grover in 1953, and in 1986, his son, Rakesh Grover took over. Today, Rakesh is the Managing Director, running the business with his son and third-generation heir Siddharth Grover.
According to Siddharth, in order to grow, he keeps a tab on the trends and has tried to redefine the way in which advertising and marketing are done.
How has he been able to do it? He says that the Indian population largely consists of youth, therefore, adopting a youth-centric approach is paramount, in addition to building a strong brand presence.
Last year, the business introduced international wear after tying up with several international designers. Siddharth says that international lingerie markets are “more mature” than the Indian ones. However, awareness in Indian markets is also now increasing. Groversons Paris Beauty has already crossed a turnover of Rs 150 crore. It is expecting to touch Rs 200 crore this year, and its target is to reach Rs 500 crore in the next three years.
Ajmal Perfume
Abdulla Ajmal, a third gen entrepreneur at Ajmal Perfume
In the late 1940s, near Hojai village in Assam, a rice farmer searched the dense jungles for ‘oud’ - a precious scent and fragrant oil from the agarwood tree. Haji Ajmal Ali believed if he could find enough oud, he could start a business in the perfume industry and change his family’s fortunes.
In 1950, he took some oud and his meagre savings of Rs 500, and left his homeland for Mumbai. On reaching the commercial capital, he became a supplier for oud and agarwood, which he sourced from Assam. But this was not enough. He wanted to be a perfumer and not just a middleman.
So, in 1951, he started blending various kinds of fragrant oils and created a range of perfumes. This completed Haji Ajmal Ali’s unlikely transformation from a farmer to a perfumer. In the 1960s, he opened his first store and gave his family name to the product range. Blending fragrances himself also sparked the beginning of the Ajmal Perfume empire.
In 2011, the company reported a turnover of Rs 1,475 crore ($200 million). Today, it claims to have a presence across 40 ecommerce sites and has become one of the biggest single-brand perfumery houses in India.
“Ajmal, being a homegrown brand, aspires to be offering international quality at an affordable price. Ajmal is able to achieve this because we are one of the only companies in India with an integrated value chain, right from sourcing raw materials to delivering products to the end consumer,” says Abdulla Ajmal, a third-gen entrepreneur at Ajmal Perfume.
(Edited by Saheli Sen Gupta)