Madura repositions Byford

Madura Garments has repositioned its knit T-shirt label Byford as a corporate/institutional brand. Rebadged as Byford's 'Corporate Gloss', Madura has expanded the range to customised apparels and accessories.

The 90-product catalogue now includes shirts, casual jackets, sweaters, blazers, ties, socks, key fobs and leather portfolios targetting the Rs 3,000 crore corporate incentive and gift segment.

"Corporate Gloss will be the vehicle to address our institutional and co-branding initiative and Byford's, at least for the next two years, will be the lead brand," an official said.

Though a pioneering effort to address a largely unorganised sector, Madura's targets are modest. M Vasanth Kumar, vice-president (marketing) said, Byford Corporate Gloss in its pilot run last fiscal grossed Rs 3 crore and is projected to net just over Rs 10 crore over the next couple of years.

Despite the strong projections, Byford's numbers, two years hence, will still be smaller than its Rs 12 crore valuation three years ago.

However, Vasanth Kumar said, the makeover was necessary as Byford could not sustain itself as a T-shirt and jacket label alone. Madura grounded Byford's retail initiatives two years ago and the other Madura brands have stepped in to service Byford's domains.

Since its soft launch a year ago, Byford Corporate Gloss has already reached 400 corporate clients and executed over 160 orders across ITES/BPO, manufacturing, FMCG, pharma, educational institutions and other industries.

Further, to meet growth projections, the company is adding 50 more products to its catalogue, while stepping up marketing and promotion.

On the one hand, the company is in touch with divisional and HR heads, team leaders and CEOs, while on the other it is tying up with portals like Rediff and increasing the ad spend in an attempt to cement the brand as a solution provider for corporate incentive and gifting needs.

Madura is also tweaking the sales process, as this B2B (business-to-business) segment will be radically different from the customary B2C model (business-to-customer). Madura has set up a network of direct sales area co-ordinators in key corporate centres like Mumbai, NCR, Chennai, Bangalore, Pune, Hyderabad, with back-end support staff and an exclusive design team in Bangalore to execute the orders.

This brand restructuring follows similar brand makeovers by the company. Recently, its trouser label San Frisco was redone as SF Jeans, while its Allen Solly-Women turned into a daily and office wear range from a fashion driven offering.