India Calling
India Calling

Khaadi is a Pakistani brand well known for its hand woven fabrics. The brand is a complete one-stop solution for home textiles, as well as women’s and men’s garments and fabrics, including khaadi, conventional lawn, ready to wear prêt wear and men’s salwar kameez.

The company recently participated in Lifestyle Pakistan, an exhibition, which was conducted to better trade relations between India and Pakistan. Danish A Adamjee, COO, Khaadi reveals his retail plans for India and also his takeaway from the exhibition.

Gunjan Piplani (GP): What opportunities do you see in the Indian retail arena? What are your plans for India?

Danish A Adamjee (DA): India has come across as a strong retail market. It will be an easy market to capture, as the Indian and Pakistani tastes of clothing are quite similar. The Pakistani fashion will only bring freshness to the existing Indian fashion. Now that we see the trade policies getting better between India and Pakistan, we want to grab that opportunity. We see India as a quick essential market for growth, as the culture and preferences of the two countries are similar. We want to enter India as a 100 per cent retail brand, adhering to the 30 per cent clause of SME sourcing. We have always operated as a company-owned 100 per cent retail brand across various operations globally.

GP: What is your retail format and what are your offerings in Pakistan?

DA: We operate in a store format of minimum 3,000 sq ft of store space in Pakistan, which can go up to 10,500 sq ft. We are a complete solutions provider for men, women and home textiles. Though we showcased only women’s wear at the Lifestyle Pakistan exhibition, when we launch ourselves in India, we will bring all our products. We specialise in hand woven, stitched and embroidered khaadi, which is called Khaadi Khaas. We want to attract customers with our hand work. Our objective is to keep our workforce intact and promote ourselves as a brand that specialises in handwoven fabrics.

GP: What is your objective behind participating in this exhibition?

DA: We are here to get a feel of the people’s requirements and also to make our presence felt. If things work out and the protocols fall in place, we might as well be seen in India by December this year.

GP: What are the price points that you are selling at?

DA: We are bringing in fashion at affordable prices. The price of our products begins at Rs 2,200. We do a lot of value addition to our products in terms of embroidery and embellishment.

GP: With things falling in place, can we expect a reduction in the prices?

DA: Once the protocols, including security, export and better trade policies, are met, the prices are likely to come down by 5 per cent.

GP: Coming to India will mean producing larger quantities. Is Khaadi ready for it?

DA: We will be manufacturing in Pakistan itself, where we have a 5,000-strong workforce. Right now, we produce about 55,000 units in a month and we sell only at our stores. Coming to India will call for 200,000 units a month and we are ready for it.

GP: What have you gained from the exhibition? The exhibition over, what are you looking forward to now?

DA: Our coming to India and participating in this exhibition has worked in our favour, as people are getting aware about our brand, product and quality. We have been waiting for trade to happen between India and Pakistan for more than 40 years, but nothing really worked out. Now that this exhibition has taken place, I think it is a fresh ray of hope for entrepreneurs like us. 

 

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