Rupa to launch Fruit of the Loom brand
MUMBAI: Men’s inner wear firm Rupa & Co has long been tied to the image of a mass-appeal brand, with the tagline, “Yeh Aaraam Ka Mamla Hai”.
It has now set its eyes on diversifying to premium categories and customers and reaching out to women.
Mint reported on Wednesday that Rupa’s Mumbai-based subsidiary Oban Fashions Pvt. Ltd had signed an agreement to manufacture and sell products under the “Fruit of the Loom” brand name, whose licence it acquired from Warren Buffett-owned Berkshire Hathaway.
Rupa’s shares rose more than 10% on the announcement on Thursday. They closed 3.4% higher at ₹294 apiece on the Bombay Stock Exchange.
“Fruit of the Loom was in India in 2009,” said Siddhant Agarwal, vice-president of projects and acquisitions, Rupa, in a phone interview. “They exited in 2012 because while they were selling well, they were unable to manage their back-end operations well since they did not have experience with business in India.”
Agarwal said the Berkshire Hathaway subsidiary has been looking for an Indian partner for a joint venture or a licence agreement to re-enter India ever since. “We have been talking to them for a long time and this deal has come through now,” he said.
Rupa will launch the brand’s men’s and women’s inner wear lines at the same time, and will bring its entire catalog of inner wear and casual wear to India except socks, according to Agarwal. Rupa sells socks under the brand Footline.
“We hope to launch by September this year and we are working toward it, but we will see it latest by Q3,” Agarwal said.
Agarwal said Rupa is in talks with “two agencies with global networks” for promoting the brand in India. Rupa will initially outsource manufacturing, and set up a plant only in three years’ time, Agarwal said. “In the next 4-5 years, we want to bring Fruit of the Loom products to 30,000 stores in India.”
According to retail advisory firm Wazir Advisors, the inner wear market in India was worth ₹24,000 crore in 2015. The premium category made up 15% of the market.