The Hindu Business Line : Reliance re-launches Vimal; plans to double exports

Ahmedabad, Nov. 2 Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), whose Vimal brand contributes to 22 per cent of all Indian fabric exports in the suitings category, is targeting to double exports by the year 2010, Mr Anand Parekh, President, Textile Business, said here on Friday.

After the official re-launch of Vimal with a new logo, ‘freed-from-boundaries’, at its main store here, he said the RIL fabric brand was currently being exported mainly to the US, Europe and Japan. The company is now going to offer value-added products such as shirts, suits, jackets and trousers.

Another new business of RIL, automotive furnishing, launched recently, is also being given a fillip. In the next three years, 1.1 million cars in India are expected to be furnished annually and the number may go up to five times in a decade as more car-owners furnish their vehicles, he said.

Asked why the Vimal brand remained dormant over the last few years, Mr Parekh said the company split into two groups led by Mr Mukesh and Mr Anil Ambani in August 2005. Mr Mukesh then decided to revamp the entire textile business of the group and it took about two years to implement the plans, explained Mr Parekh.

Replying to a question about RIL having a brand-ambassador for the new-look Vimal, he replied in the affirmative, saying the fabric has had many brand ambassadors in the past and will have more in the future also. However, he did not elaborate.

Mr Parekh said the domestic market in this segment is estimated to increase from the existing Rs 1 lakh crore to Rs 1.90 lakh crore by 2010. Bulk of it, about 59 per cent, would be in the urban areas. Vimal is now focusing on worsted suiting, with a domestic market of Rs 970 crore. Vimal’s share is about 10 per cent and there being only three or four other competitors, the market looks attractive.

In the Rs 3,800-crore synthetic suiting market, the organised sector accounts for Rs 850 crore with nearly eight major brands. Vimal would also be focusing on branded garments as the market is shifting to the ready-to-wear (RTW) segment.

About 70 per cent of urban people now prefer RTWs and 55 per cent of it is branded material.

To encourage this, RIL has hired the services of Italian fashion designers for training tailors to be made available at all Vimal outlets.

The apparel would be available under three sub-brands for different sections of the male audience. As part of its strategy to re-launch Vimal, RIL has got its exclusive showrooms redesigned by an international retail design and architecture expert in a “modern, trendy and contemporary way.”

After the first showroom in Ahmedabad, the company is setting up 24 more in a year, beginning with Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai and Kochi. Additionally, RIL would set up 200 franchisee-run stores across India.

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