The Hindu Business Line : Reach plans BPO arm for apparel designs

REACH Technologies, a Bangalore-based company offering software products and services to the apparel industry, is planning to set up a BPO subsidiary in the next six months, its CEO, Mr Shyam Raj, told Business Line.

The 150-seat centre, which is to come up in Bangalore, will employ nearly 450 people who will design patterns and incorporate design changes for top international retailers.

Generally, retailers have multiple sources across the globe for their goods; each supplier starts off by drawing patterns, a time-consuming process, which leads to "duplication of work," said Mr Raj. By setting up a 24-hour centre, Mr Raj seeks to centralise this basic function, a move, which he reckons will save production time.

Reach is in the process of talking to potential clients, and is "targeting the top 20 international retailers in North America and Europe" who have significantly large outsourcing operations.

The funding for the subsidiary is expected to come from Nadathur Holdings & Investments, which has also funded Reach Technologies. Nadathur is a private equity fund promoted by the Co-founder of Infosys Mr N.S. Raghavan.

The company also has plans to do a pilot run for the domestic market by setting up small units in Delhi, Tiruppur and Chennai that would create customised design patterns. These units, to be manned by pattern masters, will cater to domestic manufacturers who face capacity constraints.

Meanwhile, Reach Technologies expects to end the financial year ending (March) with revenues of Rs 6 crore, up from Rs 2 crore last year. It has also set itself an ambitious target of Rs 30 crore next year, the big jump expected to come from North American, Western European and Asean markets, which the company hopes to foray into later this year.

Reach plans to increase its staff strength to 200 by the year-end from 80 now.

Reach's main products, CAD and Cut Planner, claim to provide fabric optimisation of about 2-8 per cent, which Mr Raj says is significant, as the fabric cost comprises over 60 per cent of the apparel-making cost.

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