How to Build Saree Brand: Strategy, Systems, AI & Profit | Prasad Chalavadi | FO498 Raj Shamani

31:21If you go to any of the store, we have our Varmaha Lakshmi 40 plus stores. This is everywhere the same experience. No compromise. Zero tolerance. And if you you know we have the other worlds also if I take KLM fashion the other brand it's a fast fashion and value fashion and we decided to give the best possible experience it's a family store you have saris you have ladies apparel men's wear kitswear again all our brands the core is ethnic around 20-25 % is our daily wear what we sell so what happened so we wanted to start that brand and we decided we need to address value fashion so how do we give them the international experience so to give you a little understanding about my fashion journey so from the beginning ever since I was a kid ever since I was going to college I am more fashion oriented I love fashion and my friends and my dad used to make fun of me if there is no new outfit I never used to go to the college.

32:32Trust me. My father used to whenever I don't go to the college he asked me why you don't have any new shirt you don't have a new dress today. It is default. I mean this is what I love fashion I want to dress up for the occasion religiously come what may no compromise. So with that urge wherever I go whether it is in India or abroad 25 to 30 percent of my time I spend in the malls understanding the fashion, local preferences. This is in my DNA. It's not about I never envisioned that I would be getting into the fashion or selling saris. I don't know anything at that point of time. That really helped me to get a holistic understanding what a customer would be needing.

33:18The price, some will give. The range, I mean some other people will give. The service, okay. Now today everybody will try to give their best. But bringing them together with international shopping experience. So when we conceived this idea, so we went to the world tour. I took two people from my architect team, my principal architect and his assistant, and my brother-in-law and his assistant, myself. Total five people. We went to Dubai. We went to London. We went to New York. We went to Los Angeles, Las Vegas. rodeo drive everywhere we have spent around 27 28 days every day morning 8 30 9 o 'clock do the breakfast come to the roads take the pictures everywhere wherever you get inspiration we take the pictures till 3 30 4 o 'clock after the lunch we used to come back and we used to do that put everything together our architect team used to i used to give them we all used to do the brainstorm they used to create the 3d models so after one month we came back to Hyderabad and I called our project teams and all the turnkey people and I have shown the 3d pictures and they were laughed at us so you are looking at the whole America London Dubai pictures what is happening

34:41then I said no how do we do that because the main challenge is your facade and believe me you have to see that to believe the facade lighting what we have done LED lighting even after 8 years nobody could able to replicate it the facade lighting the furniture fixtures the tiles everything so then I told the only option is to go to China let's go again China tour with 3-4 people I have spent this time 45 days I went every corner every factory starting from the furniture fixtures tiles and your lighting, ceiling, elevation, everything. It was so difficult nightmare but we could able to do it and everything zero compromise.

35:33We brought everything together. Believe me, bumper hit. Super hit. Box office hit. And see, what I'm trying to tell here is, you can start a store, you can have a vision but But you should not compromise. You have to die for it. You have to work for it. So with this mindset, what we adopted is cluster model of penetration. Meaning we will identify a cluster, potential cluster. We will penetrate that cluster to get maximum share out of it with multiple brands. So in that way, what happens is you will have a large scale economies like, you know, all the relevant product. You can rotate between the stores because we have wonderful system.

36:15so that at any point of time, 50 % of our customers are repeated customers. Whenever they come back again, they will see the fresh collection. So, and the management is also very, very easy. Like, you know, if you have 80 stores, at least 80 different parts, length and breadth of India, you should have 30, 40, 50 managers. Now I have one efficient manager for one cluster. And one cluster, you have six, seven, four, five, three, depends based on the cluster. And also, as we all know, India is all about diversity. Every 200 kilometers, your language, slang changes. India changes. Yes, everything changes.

36:54So by that way, what happens is it is not about the opening the store. It's not like menswear where you make a shirt, you know, you send it to 100 stores by making 10 ,000 shirts and distribute it. But for us, every sari is different. Every sari is different SKU. We don't repeat. very hardly you see two or threes of same saree across our network, not across the store. We believe that. You know, every saree, one size fits all. And that's the reason why, you know, we could able to play it.

37:27At least in the day, the hardest job in this world is you can wear a woman's saree. Because they have to try 100 sarees minimum. Because this is, I told you, it is an emotion. it's a ritual it's not about that gives them happiness and whenever I see a woman wearing trying so many saris I always feel pressure to write a business because you are the part of the vibe money you can do any business and make money still make money right so that is very difficult and you need to have that kind of what do you call that inventory to make them happy that kind of designs and for you for us red is a red right but women can see the variation 10 different reds I'm not joking and they come to the store why the online is not picking today and why we are surviving it is all an experience when they buy a sari they see the red in yellow light they see the red in white light they see the red in sunlight because the red reflects in fact not red every color it behaves differently in different lights they want to make sure because they don't want to compromise because they want to good at a wedding and when they come out of that wedding diaz it is all white lighting they want to make sure that also look good for the pictures and during the process there when they go out and do some shooting or something like that in sunlight this this is the ritual this is what keeping this culture this emotion this celebration is going that's the reason why i told i mean just like woman, you don't understand, nobody ever understood the potential of this woman-centric Indian ethnic, I'm telling you, this will be there for centuries.

39:12So, coming to the point, by doing this, by penetrating to the customer, you're going very near to the next cluster. And there will be overlapping about, like, you know, customer coming here and there. So, you understand the preferences of that particular cluster. Slowly, you will penetrate one step at a time. Today, we are doing just our 1650 crores approximately just out of 25 cities just imagine the potential. And in 25 cities we have 45 clusters. Every cluster behave differently. We have track of every system. We carry around we track around 25 to 30 variables of every shari. This is the data.

39:53This is the gold mine. This is worth of hundreds and thousands of dollars. I'm telling you. The data is everything. You know why? I mean, India banned the foreign brand. I mean, this is all about data. And we are sitting on a gold mine. And now, we have a great opportunity to use all these techniques, technologies, and we are surprised to the patterns that AI agents are throwing us. Because we are exposing 20 years, 25 years data. So, with all these things in place, so the cluster model has really helped us. And in order for you to penetrate deeply in a cluster, one brand will not help you. You should have a bouquet of brands to capture market share.

40:34So this is a science behind it. It's not like, you know, just doing for the sake of doing. And I told you my sweet spot, see any business with my scale, they need to make a gross profit of 40 to survive, to take home around 10%. If you don't take 10 % home, net profit after taxes, after your administration, everything, what is the point of doing business? there is no point I don't do and if somebody is trying to do by what you call like you know instead of 40 % they do a 30 % gross margin and they're going to pay that 30 % because expenditure same to me also see the employee cost the inflation cost the electricity rent everything is same right so if you don't make any profit how do you survive in the bad days you are seeing nobody knows what's going to happen if this war continues for next one month how do you survive in those days?

41:29See, this is a long-term plan. It's not about short-term. I'm talking about short-term. All these problems, the customer also comes. With all due respect, I'm so sorry. This is our prize. We will very politely handle them. And the first thing I tell to my salespeople is, our salespeople are very, very experts. The contrast, what we do, the minute they understand in 5 minutes once they realize they are not going to buy their attitude changes seriously and they will make you they will make the customers feel so bad and they will leave the first thing I told my people I will give you enough salaries I will give you whatever you want but don't treat the customer that way because the customer if not today what I think is they will come back tomorrow with their friends.

42:26If they like your collection. I told you, no, women, word of mouth is very powerful. They will bring another 10 friends with them. 10 family with them. So, we treat them very well. And this is one thing I can guarantee in our store. The customer, customer is God, customer is king. It's not for just the sake of writing. That's the reason why I told you our conversion rate is 95. 95 % and if it is 94, it will come into my attention. I'm not joking. We are very serious about the business. If 100 people walk in, 95 people buy. 95 people has to buy. That's the thumb rule. And we have a valid data and valid track record and we have a reason to believe why somebody come to your store.

43:14How do you track it? We have a punching system. We have an intelligent, what do you call that, surveillance system with AI. it can recognize our employees and versus our customer who is going outside who is going outside who is not in the room for example if a customer walks in our employees are not attending them so there is an alert I told you that the wonderful AI we have created you have to come I will show you you will love it the person who loves the technology you will love it it will throw we have created more than 200 exceptions what is it? initially when we created that our in-house surveillance team, we have around 7 ,000, 8 ,000 cameras across our network, I believe.

44:00So we used to have that monitors, we have 125 people sitting in a big hall, randomly looking at it and when they look at it, if they find a problem they will immediately escalate. But there are so many people, you have 6 ,000 plus cameras and 125 people, there is so many things that go unnoticed. So now with intelligent AI in place, what we did is that 125 team became 25. Every single thing is tracked and we have escalation process if that case is true. Like, you know, for example, the sales staff is not supposed to use the cell phone in the store. We don't allow it. By secretly or something, somebody using it, it will catch and it will send an alert to the floor manager, floor supervisor, store manager, area manager and concerned local director.

44:49I'm not joking. You keep talking about technology and surveillance and you said AI gives you so many different patterns based on your data because you've fed it 20 years of data. Correct. Give me one or two patterns that surprised you, which AI gave you. So we have a data scientist team and a subset of them is creative planning, right? For forecasting and forecasting the next month. So, we have very complex story here. Okay. Like we run on seasonality. Like if you talk about Diwali, last year Diwali will not come the same day this Diwali. And we have four different states with four different wedding calendars.

45:33Right? See, I told you, you know. What are the four states you are active in? Andhra, Telangana, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. In Andhra, people celebrate full moon day. In Tamil Nadu, people celebrate no moon day. It's a day and night difference. So we have a track regard of like you know these people what they do is they do on excel. They will try to download the data or they have we have multiple MIS reports all these things they used to do manually. For example what they do next month we have Diwali. Diwali will say what they do last Diwali. And they will try to do the assessment. now is what is the market sentiment.

46:10If it comes to this time, people will do it. Like not to that extent of because everybody is worried about what is going to happen. Right? So they will try to do all these estimations and they will try to create a budget and that budget will be passed on to our buyers and buyers will coordinate with our viewers and get the things done. This is a cycle. And our business doesn't run on three seasons, four seasons. Every month we run budget. Every month is a season for us. every month we refine we redo designs and everything we don't repeat so when you are trying to do this 80 stores we have 7 different categories and we have 45 different clusters with 4 different calendars humanly how much you can do and all that we trust them and there is all chances your 10 % go for a toss your calculation and we have a mechanism where to fix that 10 % in the course of time and now when hypothetically so we are running currently what we did was the AI is doing and our team is also doing these are two different teams they don't have any connection so these people gave me a projection of 155 crores of cost price purchases for the month of March the AI gave me it's 97 crores and I did not expose these two datas to each other.

47:39I got in a third team. I asked them to validate. They told this this is absolutely correct sir. See this is the beauty of it. See you are bringing in efficiencies. I can buy 150 crores or 160 that's a different story but I need to get the relevant stock. No. This is all about the game. How relevant you are to the current market is all name of the game. Right. That's what we do. so then you went ahead with 97 crore or 155 crore in me I went with 120 I have to strike the balance because I don't know yet see this is all transformation phase I cannot 100 % because I don't want to lose the business I thought 50-50 who will give 50 % advantage in people 50 % I mean we keep at track and then you'll find out whether the decision was 97 was right or 150 was right and I'll give you one simple example where we are using AI currently which is very very effective for us see we have a mechanism of taking the feedback from the customers and I mean like when they like something when they don't like something they will write and we have a mechanism of scanning it putting into the system the OCR will recognize it will read and it will escalate it will understand we call it as ABC A being ugly B is okay C is very good it's a reverse for us because the escalation A is very important B is not a meaning somebody is appreciating thank you but somebody is not happy that is a very serious problem so ABC reverse mechanism we have so and also you know the people nowadays the NKs everyone they started doing their reviews on people will have bad experience it's not a guaranteeing 100 % there is always things go wrong this is like doing a wedding in the family no matter what you do if something goes wrong it's like we do 80 weddings every day 80 stores A-cake wedding whatever no matter what you do things will go wrong but the idea is to understand where you are going wrong and not to repeat that again so you have a digital feedback also right so it used to take three four days for us to get it to properly escalated understand the reason and talk to the customer and resolve the problem it is not that okay we track every problem okay So now with this AI agent, I'm telling you, I'm so surprised.

50:03We started connecting to the people walked out of the store even before they go home. Because it is throwing so realistically. The AI agent, it is scraping around my data real time and it's throwing the exceptions. Like, you know, this guy, Amir Peth, a problem. Customer, online baby, they will tag the stores, your location. and immediately we are escalating and there is a team CR and team they will immediately call them sir I am so sorry so it happened to our children please accept this 500 gift voucher come back before even they reach home even they reach home this is the beauty of technology technology is there but you should have a heart to go for it interesting tell me is there was there any month where things went wrong where I thought that this decision see that is it everyday but tell me the biggest mistake you have made so it is about my business so in the initial days when I started my business I still remember that the bad experience that really helped me a lot to transform to where I am today but what was it so what I did was with over enthusiasm I thought like you know we are educated I need to do something great different about it.

51:26So I created a weaving center in Hyderabad. Wherein we bought around 10 weavers from Kanjiwaram. 10 weavers from Banaras. 10 weavers from somewhere near Hamdabad. We have 25-30 looms we have set. And I thought, we will do it and we will show the market. I thought that we don't know all of them. And it went one month after one fine day. out of 25 people, 20 people left without any notice. Then I was like, what happened? I was going to go. Then I started calling them and our other viewers in the society, we want to be in our place. We can't come here. The typical setup is they live behind the house and the front, they will have the looms and wife, husband, one or two helpers or kids, they will be doing it together.

52:23it is a culture for them they don't want to give up their roots for them so then I understood I mean I lost around 1.5-2 crores that's the first and that is the costliest mistake till today but in contrast that 1.5 crore has given me this 1650 crore empire as we speak today it's gonna grow big so your learning was it is not about reinventing the wheel when something working out don't disturb you go to the root then I went that where I took it so personal and I don't want to give up the idea is to create this setup is to bring in efficiencies in our sourcing yeah then A. Subnai WorkCore I immediately instead of just giving up I started started going deep into the rural areas length and breadth of India I have traveled more than eight and a half nine months I mean four days five days a week coming back and going and that has changed that's the game changing for us.

53:24Today we have that thousands of weavers working for us because of the personal connect I have developed on that particular day. Because that's what it helped us. What did you do? I go talk to them. See, generally what happens is typically it's other way around. They come and all these big families, business families, they don't treat them well. I said, they used to wait. With all due respect, I'm not finding fault with anyone. This is a typical story. When I myself go to them, sit with them, talk to them, and I gave my confidence, comfort with them. When you talk, see the people who are suppressed, they don't need any money from you.

54:13You go, talk to them, give them a nice comforting voice. Let us change the story. and that will change everything. The morals, the moral level, I have seen so many stories and that connect today. If you look at it, we value, I told you, karma. And I also, with that background, that belief, I never forget my roots. Two things, I'll give you an example. The first viewer who really helped me to crack this entire story up, today is 75-80 he is very weak he was not doing well 15-20 sari he will weave a month forgetting about what price he is giving it's not about the profit I take his full production today even today end of the day I feel like I have to answer my conscience I mean, yearly we sell more than 1 crore sari is what is the difference?

55:18You are making some value and sticking onto the core and you are making an example to your coming generations also. Money is not everything. Human values, culture is very important. And on the day we rang the bell in the stock exchange, I took all my first set of viewers who really stood with me. They are all, they are wealthy people, they are good people, they are not educated, they are all village kind of a thing. they were like you know when I made them to sit along with my friends and family when I rang the bell they were literally crying you know that is something this this is the core values you need to have you should not forget your roots this is what I believe in and this is what tomorrow my next generations what they gonna how they gonna manage the business how much money they're gonna make I don't care but I'm making a system where this core principles are followed this is a foundation we want as long as you stick on to that

56:25that is true so this is the so this is why I told you why I did all these things I have that personal connection with them the personal connect why I could able to do all these things because I failed there if I wouldn't have failed or if I wouldn't have tried because that is one and a half crore at that point of time is a big money I took it as a challenge because I have to prove myself to my team also right from the beginning I take enough time to understand might take one year or two years but I will take enough time to understand again I'm saying once I understand I get the clarity I move with breakneck speed that's how we operate as a team I'm talking about I means we We all believe in the same system.

57:12Same core principle. Whenever, sorry, whenever I say I am referring to my 7000 and thousands of viewers because we are all aligned to one single vision and agenda. Do or die. You talk to any of my core. They will die for this. They love to do it. See, I don't know how do you define my leadership style. I give lot of pressure. I believe in that. You believe in putting pressure? Yes. And that's what I believed all through my life. But only to the people who has potential. A lot of people do that. A lot of entrepreneurs do that. Like really successful ones. They love putting pressure. I don't know how far I told you how far I'm relevant to the current generation.

58:00I'm here to tell my story and let them understand how the real world is. Interesting. How do you beat giants like Tata and Reliance? because they've also entered, right? Reliance with Avantra, Tata with Tanera. See, you can see that in a direct regard. See, you want to enter because you have a heritage, you have deep pockets, it's different. Trying to understand this because this is all about connecting with the weavers. We have done that from last 25 years. Of course, if they want, they can. But there is a lot of science. It is evolution. Like I told you, you send the same shari to 80 stores across length and breadth of India, it won't work.

58:43And you should have data to understand. You should have that focus and you should have that connect with the weavers. It's an ecosystem I'm talking about. Titan has done that. Like Tata has done this before with jewelry. Right. They're trying. They've tried to organize in an unorganized sector in a more standardized way. In a way. In a category which is driven out of range. So they've done the stuff. No, they have done that. They are trying to replicate it here. And actually, we are very, very happy if they succeed because they're going to organize the story. They will make the level playing. They will invite more people.

59:15When big companies like that come, it's easy for the government also to understand the real numbers. And it motivates the people also. I always see. We love competition coming into the business. But why I love corporate is they don't compromise. They don't believe in losing money. They might spend extra in the back end like us. But in retail, they don't lose money. They don't undersell. They need that profit. That is the fundamental in the retail to survive the long game. It might take time for them to do it. It's okay. I have also invested so much of money, believing that it will help me down the line, which is really paying me off now.

59:53Fair. Okay, then coming back to your data points. You were saying you collect 25-30 data points. Tell me top three data points that you collect, which is very important. my cost price the cluster the weaver and the border size and the mix of mix of silk and zari and my palla my body design motifs and blouse and this is so how do you collect like this design what are people liking what they are not liking we go with the flow we have that understanding I mean like you know I'll tell you it's all I'll tell I mean fashion is a circular it's not it's never linear meaning we are trying to recreate the 50 60 70 years age old series now and we are calling it as a vintage and gen Z's are going gaga about it because they want to celebrate the culture and heritage what their you know grandmothers used to wear all those things so what happens is initially we have done with 6 inch at border and we try to do a first lot of 20, 30, 40, 50 whatever and we will see how they are moving and we will try to and people are asking no no now it is not 6 inch, now 10 inch.

1:01:14The feedback will be there and then we will try to track and we will have the 6 inches border and 10 inch border so our systems will efficiently tell like you know and also when it comes to the motifs. In the old days, there are so many motifs. Mango or any animal, whatever. So now people, we understood it is not too small. It should not be too big. It should be 3 inches. This is all we track and this is how the 25 data points I am talking about, we track everything. Including the color variation we track. But then, how much time is it? So anywhere between 3 days to 9 months. It depends on the craft.

1:01:58Because it's collecting data. And it's fast fashion. The trend is there. And you say something that, okay, this is something that we've identified. Will it take like six to nine months for you to put it in the market? I'm talking about in general. So all these things, this fashion and all those things, anywhere between 20 days, 25 days job. So I mean, talking about the extremists. When you ask me about the overview, anywhere between three days to... The wedding wear would be like till nine months, ten months. like you know they want they don't want to compromise they want that five lakh six lakh sari and it's it's going to take its own time and we do do the estimation because nobody going to wait for nine months right so we have that projections and all those things how what's the most expensive sari you sold 7.8 lakhs wedding wedding sari all our wedding saris but tell me In India, this is a big thing about wedding economy.

1:02:58This Indian story about weddings, I have seen weddings all over the world between different cultures. The ones that spend on the wedding, no one spends anywhere. That vibe is different. And the background of it, like you know, when there is a wedding in the family, beg, borrow or steal. you have to do that wedding based on your status whether you have cash flow or not you have that peer pressure you have to do it and when it comes to the wedding the major budget generally goes to the jewelry and saris and these two is 50 % rest everything is 50 % I am talking about a generic I mean there is different context this side and that side so generic and today blessing in disguise jewelry became gold became so costly and men is saying to buy whatever they want because previously the men used to give more budgets for the jewelry because it's an investment it's always an expenditure it's not an investment you can keep it as a memory but you don't get any value out of it eventually so they always used to push to buy more jewelry maybe in that 50 % 30-35 % to jewelry and 20-25 % to saris now 50%, 45%, 40 % is serious because they cannot it's out of reach gold is going out of reach and that is a blessing in disguise and the beautiful story India is all about celebration even today when my American friends come they don't want to go back because there still it's weakened culture like you know you work your half for 5 days and 2 days here everyday is a celebration and if you look back our Indian calendar is very intelligently designed out of 365 days generally 300 days is about festivals weddings, celebrations, occasions, something or other and top of it to our advantage today our Christmas we have many parties and people they want to celebrate everyday and thanks to social media once we have a picture Kinchlia Dalia They don't want to repeat a saree They want a new one I mean It is between every class It's the same story And that's the reason why I always say This saree Gonna be In India As long as The celebrations Will be there As long as The women's celebrations Are going on And it's all about celebration And no matter what But then Do you think Japan in Kimono culture Went up Right and I think in the 1890s, the market hit the 17 billion dollar market at peak.

1:05:50Like it was at insane peak and everybody was wearing kimono all around the world. In fact, that culture was made. And what happened then it just dipped and our Japanese kimono is not even like one tenth of what their business was. So, they have their traditional business down. Because the younger generation is very less there now. See, it's all about old people there. see now we are talking the same thing right the genjis they are more connected spiritually then these are the our custodians these are the people like you know they are going to take forward our culture see if you look at the main problem with the Japan now is there is no young generation maybe could I don't know I never I mean I am just out of the fly out of the table I am saying they have an aging population so you feel because young people are not that way that kimono culture would be dying See, who's going to keep the culture alive?

1:06:44Your next generation. See, after a point, I mean, when you get to a point of age, you more prefer like comfortable clothing, right? Even today, we get women around 70 years. They want to take the silk shardis, but cotton based. Like our, what do you call that? Quotas, jerry quotas. That each shari is one lakh, two lakh. they want that silk they want that grandeur they want that color they want that vibe but they don't want to go for silk because silk is little heavier than cotton so that's how when people are aging probably that that ethnic outfit lost and is relevant maybe I don't know in China it happened the opposite way there is what do you call that?

1:07:37Hanfu their traditional clothing it died but then after social media after digital young people wearing it using it and showing off their culture all around the world so their Chinese population was outside which they didn't they drove it exactly and they made a lot of influential so all of a sudden now China picked up and their traditional clothing all around the world is picking up so good they did a good job by social media and making it cool so their Gen Z is buying so China had a different story but Japan had a different story. Because they don't have young generation right that could be the reason and China inside China people don't drive outside China in our lives it's more excited about things than us.

1:08:24Even if you go to America I go there frequently when I go to the temple and if you look at that cultural dances like local, baratanatyam, all these things religiously along with their piano along with their gymnastics they make it a point Indian kids they go to that some kind of ethnic dance practice how many kids we are doing looking at here because they are more they want to because they miss that yeah they want to feel closer yes that's the driving factor do you think Gen Z at scale will be wearing these shoes of course yes are you wearing because we are seeing the Gen Z's no no but daily wear in my parents and grandparents generation they will wear daily wear in gen z they will not wear daily wear in gen z what will be the occasion if they will be a wedding they will wear more suits like ethnic wear less wear more suits I am talking about generic so I will give you an example when there is no occasion you will not wear I told you India is all about around 300 days it's all about celebration right see when you are talking about jenjis are more connected with the culture and ethnic irrespective I am not talking about a sari I am talking as a custodian of the Indian culture I am talking on behalf of women centric Indian ethnic that will be there okay so you are considering sari suits everything into one is like kurta everything is one ethnic in South India we are talking about the most favored outfit.

1:10:03Sadi is the most favored ethnic outfit. Tomorrow if I go to Punjab or some parts of and they have we are there. We want to do. We want to focus on that because wherever it is there, the weddings the buyings will be there. The business will be there. But has it moved from just daily wear to now only occasion wear? I'll give you a little funny understanding. So a married man will perfectly understand my example. So, typically, men buy clothes for utility because you have to wear them. Women buy saree. I mean, let's take as a placeholder, saree because she loves it. And typically, how many colors we have as a man to wear?

1:10:51Black, blue, gray, four, five, six colors? White. Checks, stripes, solids, right? So, even if you have all these combinations, higher side, you will be having what? 10-15 pairs higher size I mean we are so practical I mean in general there are some exceptional cases that's a different story I serve only black that's right so but when it comes to the women contrast is they will be having you know minimum 50 to 60 outfits thumb rule go talk to your mom how many saris she's having or maybe she wouldn't even know so 60 let's talk about 60 minimum 30 to 35-40 % see They have that, you know, daily wear, comfort wear, you know, party wear, this, that, that, this.

1:11:3760, 65%, no problem. Even if you take 60, 35 % of 60 outfits is, you know, it is around 18 to 20 outfits, which is a double the men's size. So that's keep growing, right? And also, as I told you, current woman is more empowered. She doesn't have to depend upon anyone. She like a sari. And I'll tell you, woman, I'll give you a simple example. I told you, we will take that feedback from the customer. A lot of times men accompany with their women. So, most of the times we see and we laugh, men will be writing, they are very mad, very rude. We will not come to your store again. I told your salesman to show 10 ,000 sari.

1:12:20He showed my wife 15 ,000. She bought 15 ,000. We are not coming here again. Sari is so powerful. See, you don't know. You like it, you buy it. It's all about your... See, that is a kind of a power. So there is no calculation. You like, you... There are so many people, like they try to come to buy two saris, we'll sell them third sari also. And we have a special incentive scheme for that to push that one extra sari. Thanks to our systems. So this is a beautiful ecosystem. It is surviving. And I told you, you know, it is circular. It's not linear. Like, you know, the fashion will come back. In fact, it's men's also.

1:13:00Today, you know, big collars, bell bottoms, it's finding its way back. So, it's all circular. So, do men love you or hate you? I mean, I gave you some. But generally, men don't love us. They always, because women never, you know, buy anything in the budget. They always exceed. And we are trained to push them that way. by showing them beautiful, wonderful, one-of-a-kind saris and we will tempt them. And they will not. Even, I'm telling you the same story what I had 25 years back. I told you in America that poor guy came running to me to take the saris to his wife. Today, we have seen with our own eyes.

1:13:41It's all live. They come to buy one sari. The wife wants the second sari. The husband, somehow he manages and he will convince her. He will only buy one sari. In the next one week, he will come and again he will along with his wife second sari they will not sleep they will not let you sleep I am telling you this is the reason why I love to be in this business it's all about vibe vibration celebration

1:14:09it's a typical story I don't know I mean if you if you if you are married you will understand the day to day problem they will not cook they will not give you a coffee properly they will not cook your rice properly until you buy that second sari non-cooperation movement in the house do you see this trend in young couples as well? young people as well? women is universal interesting so there's you don't see it you don't see Sadi becoming non-existent no as long as women celebrate in India I'm talking about Sari as a per se like you know if you look at a big picture in India South Indian consumption is around 50 % east west north is 50 % okay so south india saree consumption is 50 % that consumption is it getting changed with younger women coming in are they wearing something else or they are still choosing saree no ethnic sarees the number is growing up but how they are because they are not just only wearing sarees previously they used to have 5-10 outfits today they have 20-30 outfits and part of it is your ethnic okay so 5-6 still are sarees so then exactly because they have to go for parties.

1:15:23They have to go for temple. They have to go for weddings. See, it's all about, I told you, you know, and still people, and it is a part of the culture. I think everywhere in North, South, East, West, people allow their kids to come in ethnic wear for their, you know, occasions. Yeah, yeah. And then, are like ready-draped sadis becoming a trend? It is there, but only for, you know, it's negligible because now the draping as an industry it is growing it became a category by itself you see you know sari draping industry I don't want to take a name one celebrity draper she's charged five lakh rupees just to drape the sari I'm not joking who?

1:16:08I don't know so I will all the celebrities all you know big big people I'm not joking I'm serious there's a there's a person five lakh rupees just to drape a shari. I'll give you a clear reference. That's the industry is growing by itself. I would have never thought. Probably a lot of women will find me right now stupid like she doesn't know this but this is No, no. I'm talking about the high end example. There are people who do it for 1500. I'm sure if it's there at 5 lakh, there will be somebody doing it at 500 also. Exactly. But that is an industry category by itself now. Along with the makeup, it's all associated categories that are growing why do you think this kind of service is growing as a category if there is no demand makeup as a category makeup artist as a category has grown another level it is extension if you call anyone for a wedding the makeup they will promote Sari Draper also it's all interlinked it's all ecosystem it's a different ecosystem wow

1:17:21How is the online thing growing? It's good. It's decent. Are you facing any competition from the online players? No. I'll tell you, you know, today, online is all about you buy, you get, you don't like, you send it. No questions asked. Any number of times, nobody cares. But, we do online, very limited number, less than 2-3%. With a condition, no returns accepted. Why? Only with the manufacturer. Because you know that 50 ,000, 60 ,000 rupees you get, you wear, you don't fold it and send it back. I have to throw it away. And we have, we, you know, the COVID was the year we started our online. We never, still we don't really because we are doing, we need to do but that changed everything for us.

1:18:08We have shipped more than 35 countries till now. I don't, I don't, I don't even know the name of some countries that they were existing, the people are buying. What I'm trying to tell you, with no return condition, only it will be returned if there is a manufacturing defect which when the 0, 0, 0, 0, 1 percentage, people still buy 50, 60 ,000 rupees, that tells, you know, that we have created the trust in the market. And the COVID, what we did was very different than anyone is. We started the live shows, like, you know, we started doing, bringing in anchors and trying to showcase all our products you know explaining you know about a sari for one hour two hours 20 30 saris you know people used to wait the customer because they don't have anything to do yeah they wait they feel happy even if they don't buy they are seeing sari somebody is displaying new saris new designs and that really helped us nice that even still today we have created we are still creating content hundreds and thousands of worth of hours this category.

1:19:16All the saris we are doing on a daily basis. Interesting. And how do you manage inventory? Because a lot of retail players, they die in inventory. Correct. And your inventory, because you keep so much range, and your average inventory period would be what? 300-350 days? No. It's around 7-8 months. Because the problem is, the advantage is, Sari as a product it has 3-4 years shelf life you know and it's not a fast fashion it will be in trend forever and one size fits all and we have 80 stores and we have 5-6 different formats we rotate upon and we have all we rotate everything we have track of every single every single sari is like a baby to us we make it a point so with that efficient tracking but 240 days worth of inventory yeah but because that is giving you yield no see you are getting 25 ,000 rupees per square feet yield if you don't have I will tell you what in a wedding in a wedding party 4 women this side 4 women from this side bride and groom they come for to buy around 25 series ok so I told you know 6 different components variables border should not match that all you know 20-25 series different borders.

1:20:40Body should not match. Color should not match. The design should not match. Palla should not match. Blows should not match. If you want to send 25 sari's, you will get a sari.

1:20:54And if you want to send 25 sari, it will get a sari. I'm not joking. This is, they will show us the stars. Imagine 8 women. You can see this. So, okay, the body is good, and the other is not the border. If you have this set, then you can see it. If you have this, then you can see it. You have a wedding party, we need to have three or four senior salesmen who will be handling that customers. That one particular batch. It's so tough. What's so tough? You will get a sleep. Women are very, very cutthroat and shrewd. They don't like even if you give it for free they don't take. That's the kind of people we deal with.

1:21:41And they don't compromise. And when they are paying that kind of money 40 ,000, 50 ,000, 1 lakh and it is an investment. They want to make sure they are 200 % okay happy with that. But they'll never be happy because they'll always feel there must be something to look at something. They are very intelligent. They know what is happening. They know what you have. They know what your competitor have. They are very, I'm telling you, women when it comes to the saree, they are very intelligent. Up they go by. Like, you know, see, imagine with one or two, I mean, average I'm talking about, one small, two small, three small cupboards, you want to have 60, 100 sarees, you know, arranging them and keep storing them is a big science.

1:22:23They have a big problem. See, they will not give away old sarees. They will not stop buying new sarees. they want to manage within that limited place it is a big science challenge for them imagine how intelligent they should be they keep on adding saris but the space will not add up right you will not increase your closet space just like that and see how difficult for them they will not have a heart to give away their old saris they will not stop buying the new saris see and still they feel they don't have something wear it for an occasion that's a big fight happen in the families this is the power of a man this is the power of Asari tell me what if some young entrepreneur is watching this in your industry which is the opportunity which somebody can build a business in see now life became so easy there is no entry level barriers you sit home you have Instagram you become your brand ambassador you start explaining and you have you know go you don't have to buy like us you don't have to put up a brick and mortar store you get go as per but you have to set a target what kind of a product you want to sell so what is the product opportunity you see in india business in this business low range like you know under three thousand four thousand huge opportunity and everything like you know you go to surat there is a different economy running there all poor hindustan one side surat one side you go to factories one day in one day 25

1:24:00That is the industry by itself. There is opportunity. Yeah. Do people make a brand and make money? Yeah, of course. There is no brand? If I scroll through Instagram, because I am into this industry, I am interested that Instagram understands my preferences. Every day I see 20 different new Instagram pages who are selling saris. but is but for it will be very cluttered saturated there is opportunity market is also so huge no sir see it is not a small market do you think under 3000 brands there is a brand that is good there are so many I mean there are so many new kits coming up but one thing I want to tell them is you have to be disciplined what is the problem in retail people generally get wrong with sale is your profit today you have 10 ,000 now sale people think I am rich no you have to pay your vendors you have to pay your bankers you have to pay your bills, you have to pay your tax and you have to pay your employees you have to understand what is the stock still unsold, the balance is your profit half of that you have to invest back exactly, the people who understand this will flourish but that's what the sad part people really, you know inventory management and working capital must be a pain that's what, people they go wrong no by the time they realize like you know you don't have this discipline you're done festival is going to come 6 months before preparation you have to go order it and you have to have that cycle working capital cycle you you should know the best thing i learned from my family business from my father is how do you manage cash then anything cash is like a blood if you don't have a blood you will die yeah everything we we do a calculation.

1:25:49See, it's not like you have come to mind, you have paid money, it's not like that. Everything we will try to make it a point. I will tell you one simple thing for us. One rupee is not one rupee. If we say one rupee, we will give you 100 rupees. We will give you 100 times after one rupee. That is the foundation of our business. That's everything. Cash management is everything in the business. It's especially in retail and in the businesses like us. That's very important. And the people who understand this, they'll do great. Sky is the limit. Okay. Tell me one last thing. What is the problem in your life currently?

1:26:31A big problem. Which to solve, you will pay for. Like, if somebody could solve a problem that you have in your life, you will pay them a lot of money. What is that problem?

1:26:50because I am so hands on on everything I mean I am trying to think

1:26:57so make a clone of Prasad so that you know it runs the business the way I am I mean it is it is possible of course and I will enjoy my retired life okay I am ready to pay anything because I value my personal time somebody who can think and take decisions like you exactly Exactly. And that, I'm telling you, that is not so far. That is not so far. I believe it. We were talking about alpha, beta, gamma. Gamma is what? Another 15 years, 20 years, you'll see them. And they'll be like this. Yeah. Perfect. Thank you so much, sir. Thank you for spending time and sharing your story. so so much I am so happy spending time with you too thank you all the best I am enjoying I like this thank you see I want to share my journey to give you a different perspective today young generation they need stories so that they can pick whatever make relevant to them that's what these are the stories you will not find in depth anywhere yep it has to be told by the person by himself true and thank you so much see you are trying to inspire a generation that's the whole objective you are doing the right thing giving 360 degree spectrum and people let them take a call so it's a great platform thank you this is the actual moorthi that sits inside the store every store has the same moorthi and we give this to people if we keep here we will grow like you thank you so much for watching this episode now you have to do three things Number one, now subscribe to this channel.

1:28:39Because as much as you subscribe, we will get guests to you better. Number two, please tell us in comment, what we have done and what we have done, so that we can learn from that feedback and create more better experience. And number three, you must share this episode with someone. Because one conversation is enough for to change someone's life. I'll see you next time. Until then, keep figuring out. Thank you.