Bombay Dyeing adopts franchise model for expansion

Bombay Dyeing, one of India’s largest producers of textiles, plans to treble retail turnover by adopting the franchise model. BDMCL posted Rs 1,845.7 crore turnover to which retail or textiles segment contributed to nearly 17 per cent or Rs 305.7 crore for FY16. It currently aims to achieve a turnover of Rs 1,000 crore by 2020.

In the process, the company has shut all its manufacturing plants for the past two years and shifted sourcing of its products on franchise model. It has hired 10 critical and fairly large manufacturing companies on franchise basis that contribute around 90 per cent of its output requirements. Also, the company has engaged a number of small manufacturers to meet its annual requirement.

To achieve its goal, Bombay Dyeing plans to appoint at least one franchise stores in small cities with over 100,000 population. It plans to open 500 such franchise stores in four years.

The company has also set up its own design studio for research and development in product designs. Bombay Dyeing plans to launch e-commerce platform by March 2017.

Nagesh Rajanna, chief executive officer, Bombay Dyeing Retail said that they have been investing in technology, talent and brands immensely to achieve this growth. Until recently, they had been banking largely on brand loyalty with the quality products on offer to retain our customer base.

But now, they have changed their strategy and re-strategized their approach for appealing to new and young customers with around Rs 100-crore investment on brand improvement for four years.

Apart from that, according to Rajanna, the firm plans to introduce at least two-three products every year to strengthen its presence in home textiles business.

He added that to maintain the quality at every levels of the product chain from sourcing of cotton to spinning, yarn manufacturing to textiles, their quality inspection team will monitor product quality at every stage with no room for compromise. This will be in addition to the well-defined quality norms which all franchisees need to adhere to.