Madura Garments plans entry into men's innerwear market

Madura Garments has tied up with four knitwear units in Tirupur and Ludhiana to thrust its innerwear foray. The company targets to hit the Rs 250-crore men's premium innerwear market by October and the mid-priced market next year.

These innerwear manufacturers, while exporting their wares, would exclusively service Madura in the domestic market.

M Vasanth Kumar, vice-president, marketing, Madura Garments, said, "We would lift 10,000 units initially and hope to increase it to 60,000 in the next two to three years."

The company already sources knitted offerings suxh as T-shirts from these centres and decided to stick to the model for innerwear too, senior company officials added.

Observers point out that given the seasonal nature of demand for such knitted offerings, it would make sense for any apparel maker to opt for sourcing from the surplus integrated capacity available.

Madura aims to corner a 10 per cent share in the innerwear segment over a three-year period.

The plan now, the company said, was to enter the innerwear category through one of the premium offerings - Louis Philippe, Van Heusen or Allen Solly - and then would extend the other brands into the segment.

The initial premium offerings would be in the Rs 100 plus category. With just a test launch in select south Indian cities scheduled in October, numbers may not warrant capacity buildup immediately, the company said.