Mafatlal Industries has forged a 51:49 joint venture (JV) with Dubai-based Al Fahim Group for marketing and distribution of its textile brand in the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) and African countries. Through the JV, Mafatlal (with a minority stake of 49 per cent) would be selling school uniforms, corporate wear, bed sheets and towels under the co-brand Al Fahim Mafatlal in the region.
M.B. Raghunath, Senior V-P, Sales and Marketing, Mafatlal Industries, said, “There is a huge market for school uniforms and corporate wear in Dubai and West Asia. Through a new sales and marketing office in Dubai, we would be distributing the products with the help of our JV partner in the GCC countries and also the African countries. There is not much investment as it is a marketing and distribution tie-up and our company would be manufacturing the products at our facilities in Gujarat.”
MARKET PRESENCE
The Al Fahim Group has presence in a variety of sectors including automotive, oil, hospitality, industrial, property, travel and tourism. It also distributes auto brands such as Mercedes-Benz, Jeep, Fiat, Bosch and Michelin in the automotive sector in the UAE. It owns retail formats such as Paris Gallery and Watch Gallery in the region.
In the domestic market, the textile major intends to focus on the school uniform and office wear segment and has also recently entered the bed sheets and towels segment. “We would like to stay away from sectors where there are too many players. School wear, office wear, bed and bath segments have relatively less competition compared to branded garments,” said Raghunath.
In fact, Mafatlal does have a garment brand under the Trendz brand, but it has been restricted to the 110 Mafatlal family stores. “Trendz is a registered trade mark brand, but it has limited presence in the Mafatlal stores, with sales turnover of Rs 10 crore. Our textile business would be building volumes by supplying fabrics to other brands such as Madura Garments and Zodiac,” he added.
Mafatlal wants to enhance its presence through MBOs (multi brand outlets) rather than investing behind more standalone stores. “We would like to have a presence in malls through MBOs rather than single brand stores with value added products such as bed, bath and gifting items as well,’’ says Raghunath.
Mafatlal is already supplying its bed and bath collections to cash-and-carry formats such as Carrefour and Bharti Walmart, along with a host of other retailers such as Shoppers Stop and Lifestyle. E-commerce is another avenue which the textile company intends to tap into in the future.
The company hopes to post profits next quarter. “Input costs have been rising and along with power cuts and recession in the export markets, our profits have been impacted. But now, with different value-added products such as bed sheets and towels, we hope to get profitable next quarter,” said Raghunath.