Arvind Lifestyle Brands, a subsidiary of Arvind Ltd, one of the largest players in the apparel brands and retail space, today announced an agreement to market and sell basic and intimate apparel in India under the Hanes and Wonderbra brands, two of the largest and well-known global apparel brands, under a licensing agreement with U.S. based Hanesbrands Inc.
Announcing the licensing agreement, Mr. Sanjay Lalbhai, Chairman & Managing Director of Arvind Limited said, “This transaction is a significant milestone as it signals our entry into the highly lucrative market of branded apparel essentials with lingerie and undergarments.
“This market segment of branded essentials is estimated at over Rs. 18,000 crore and is expected to grow over 18% from thereon year-on-year. This new market niche, thus, offers a completely distinct and promising business opportunity for us, which will only help further consolidate our position in the Indian market.”
Gerald Evans, Co-Chief Operating Officer of HanesBrands said, “We are very excited to enter this licensing agreement in India for two of the strongest global brands with Arvind, a leader in the apparel and retail market.
“Our Hanes and Wonderbra brands have great growth potential in the lingerie and branded apparel essentials market in India. We are confident that Arvind Lifestyle Brands Ltd., which has one of the largest portfolios of licensed US brands in India, is the right partner for us to aggressively expand growth in India.”
“In the past we have focused on and built a strong position in the Indian menswear, womenswear and kidswear segments, with one of the strongest portfolios of homegrown and acquired global brands. It was only logical then, that we look at the branded apparels essentials and lingerie market as the next area of growth, given the changing lifestyles of Indian consumers and the subsequent shift in consumption to the organised sector therein. The transaction will give us a new edge to our product portfolio .We plan to grow the Hanes vertical within Arvind to achieve Rs. 500 cr revenues over next 4 years.” said J. Suresh, Managing Director & CEO, Arvind Lifestyle Brands Ltd.
The transaction signals the entry of Arvind into the highly lucrative branded apparel essentials segment. The 100-year-old Hanes brand is the No. 1 apparel brand in the United States and offers comfortable, high-quality underwear, intimates, casualwear, hosiery and socks.
A leader in innovation, Hanes is responsible for bringing to the industry creative ideas like Tagless tees, Comfortsoft waistbands and EZ Sort socks. Arvind plans to increase the current number of Hanes points of sales in India from 5,000 to 15,000 in the next 3 years.
In the women’s intimates segment world famous Wonderbra brand of intimates which is known to empower women by making them feel sexy and confident, is expected to be a lead brand. The Wonderbra brand offers women a complete line of bras and lingerie.
About Arvind Lifestyle Brands Ltd
Arvind Lifestyle Brands Ltd is a subsidiary of Arvind Ltd which is India’s largest integrated textile player and is one of the oldest and most respected groups in the Textile Business in India. Arvind is also one of the largest producers of denim fabrics and is supplier to a large number of fashion brands in the world. Arvind Lifestyle Brands Ltd has been a pioneer in brining international brands to India and first brought Arrow to India in the year 1993.
Arvind Lifestyle Brand Ltd has licensing relationships with many international Brands including Gant, Arrow, Izod, Energie, US Polo Association, Elle, Cherokee, Mossimo and Geoffrey Beene. Arvind also has a portfolio of 12 of its own brands. Arvind has a JV with Tommy Hilfiger for the Tommy Hilfiger business in India. It also runs India’s largest value retail chain, Megamart.
Arvind’s pursuit of multi-brand, multi-price point and multi-channel strategy over the last 5 years has paid rich dividend and has grown the business at a CAGR of 38%. Arvind is the only company in the fashion industry which has presence from Value to the Bridge to Luxury Segments.
Arvind is targeting revenues of Rs 5000 crs from its brands & retail businesses in the next 5 years by strongly leveraging its strengths in production, marketing and distribution. While Rs 3000 cr would come from growing the business organically at a CAGR of 20%, the rest would come through acquisitions, new brands launches and JVs. The acquisition of the business operations of Debenhams, Next &Nautica is the first step in our inorganic growth strategy to cross the Rs 2000 cr revenue mark in the next 5 years.
The company also has one of the strongest distribution networks in Indian apparel sector with over 1.3 million square feet of retail space available pan-India to its brands across 730 retail stores spread over 150 towns. This is in addition to Arvind Lifestyle Brands international doors in the Middle East and South Africa.
About HanesBrands
HanesBrands is a socially responsible leading marketer of everyday basic apparel under some of the world’s strongest apparel brands, including Hanes, Champion, Playtex, Bali, JMS/Just My Size, barely there, Wonderbra and Gear for Sports. The company sells T-shirts, bras, panties, men’s underwear, children’s underwear, socks, hosiery, casualwear and activewear produced in the company’s low-cost global supply chain.
Ranked No. 512 on the Fortune 1000 list, Hanes has approximately 51,500 employees in more than 25 countries and takes pride in its strong reputation for ethical business practices. Hanes is a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Energy Star 2012 Sustained Excellence Award winner and 2010 and 2011 Partner of the Year. The company ranks No. 141 on Newsweek magazine’s list of Top 500 greenest U.S. companies.
