Home-grown menswear major winds the clock back to pursue growth

Charath Narsimhan, CEO, Indian Terrain, has overseen the desi brand’s evolution to a Rs 400 crore turnover company last year. With 21 per cent revenue growth last quarter, the brand by itself, at the stores level, stands at Rs 700 cr after the new Indian accounting standard has come into effect. Two years ago, the foray into the boys clothing segment has largely contributed to keep the brand’s year-on-year growth story intact. 

New business, brand identity: Our foray into the boys’ wear segment (4-16 years) is now a Rs 40 crore business on a standalone basis, giving us a window to scale up dramatically. The proof of concept and testing  are all over now. Globally, we noticed the trend called ‘mini me.’ While children clothing has always been prevalent in the West, a clear shift was visible three years ago, with young boys and girls expressing their need to look better dressed and trendier – an aspect till then confined only to adult brands. Marquee brands picked up this consumer insight and entered the segment as it gave a huge traction. So, we decided to go down the same path. We are a sportswear brand and the easy-to-wear concept has easily transcended work and play. Today, casual wear can be combined with formal wear effectively with minimum fuss. In our opinion, dressing style of sportswear has helped to transcend this space completely.  Globally and in  India, the nature of workspaces and the dress codes therein, are becoming more informal. 

Pricing strategy: Close to 40 per cent of revenues is from south, where we will be continuing to grow. Across India, we add 18-20 stores a year with a majority being franchise-driven. We have selected stores in selected markets limiting our own stores to key markets as we would like to retain control and understand the market better. Consumption is fabulous in tier II and III with high disposable incomes fuelling our growth. Today, a customer from Chengalpattu finds it easy to buy in a metro filled with choices. 

A customer, who used to go all the way to T Nagar, comes here (Tambaram) as the quality and other aspects are taken care of. The east and west side of Tambaram has expanded thanks to massive consumption. The explosion of retail backed by infrastructure development over the last 10 years in such locations has made it easy for people from seemingly far-off districts to come to nearer retail hotspots to conclude their purchases. 

Design and the USP: Indian Terrain is purely a trading company, which sources everything through third party manufacturers and designs inhouse. An Italian creative director inspires the 12-member design team, giving international styling to the brand, thanks to his experience at Armani. He oversees visual merchandising and communication aspects too. It is our design aesthetic which our consumers resonate with. We are neither too flashy nor too boring but contemporary enough, which we hold on to every single day. 

As a brand, from a business point of view, in a consumption-driven India, a large part of our business is metro driven. We have 25-30 global vendors across product categories  Bengaluru, Tirupur, Ludhiana and Ahmedabad; China (for specialised products like jackets), Sri Lanka, remain our sourcing locations. Our team always scouts for sourcing opportunities and we will explore Vietnam soon and Myanmar, which is still a developing nation As a consumer clothing wear entity, we are a desi brand with international flavour as the name is a tip of the hat to provenance and lineage. That is what we have tried to reflect at all our stores, as we write the story of where are we from – Madras. 

We have established that the clothing that we make which is sportswear has a close connect with the city. In fact, the whole genesis of sportswear in the world came from here. Sportswear in the world was defined in the seventies by the Brooks Brothers and Ralph Lauren, based on ‘Madras Checks.’ The whole casual dressing originates from the city. From there it evolved into a casual, comfortable and easy wear.  The whole idea of sportswear got popular on the college campuses – the Yales and the Harvards along the East coast, all thanks to dear old Madras.