When we visit mill weeks or vendor presentations, we often see that a majority of the collections are in top weight fabrics. Rarely the vendors carry an exhaustive collection of bottom weight fabrics. This is the general scenario for most of the vendors and mills across India, except a few who specialise in bottom weights. These are very few in number & can be counted on fingertips.

This clearly shows that a DIVERSIFIED APPROACH is missing amongst the vendors which leads to an imbalance in product offering. In this article we will talk about DIVERSITY & how it can help in gaining business & building volumes.

I spoke about AGILITY & SPEED TO MARKET in my previous articles. In these articles, I have covered how to achieve quicker turn arounds in piece dyed, printed & yarn dyes fabrics. There are plenty of mills available in the market which deliver Top weight fabrics. But the situation is reverse when we look at Bottom weights.

Sourcing top weight fabrics is rather easy. I have heard vendors say this several times; “if you have orders in 40s poplin 40s poplin, 50s poplin, 60s poplin, 60s cambric, 30s rayon qualities we can deliver dyed & printed fabrics in no time”.

On the other hand, sourcing team will sit & break their heads on where to place bottom weight orders & get faster delivery. As these are limited sources, the buyers are at the mercy of the mills & vendors in terms of lead time & price.

Indian vendors often see business as a RAT RACE & run behind the same orders. Everyone chases top weight orders & is sometimes forced to reduce prices drastically to grasp these orders too. Hence the big queue of vendors for top weight fabrics. This clearly demonstrates a lack of DIVERSITY missing in their business approach. On the other hand, there are very few players in the bottom weight category & they land up dictating their terms like in price & lead time. These may not be in line with the market demands or buyers needs.

The lack of DIVERSITY in the Indian manufacturing sector has compelled the domestic/export buyers to look at other countries as their sourcing hubs. This is the primary reason behind Bangladesh & China producing & offering huge quantities in such products to Indian as well as International markets. This indicates that the bottom weights segment is being overlooked. I would say that its a lost business opportunity which is sizeable & has a lot of potential in getting orders & building volumes with great cost.

As per my knowledge, Ahmedabad based mills/vendors/process houses have recognised this gap with their DIVERSIFIED approach. They have utilised this opportunity to scale up their volumes & business gains in the bottom weight segment. Yet there is a substantial  gap as they are able to cater to only part of the domestic & export demands.

In today’s scenario customers are looking for an alternative to denims, which have been ruling the global market from quite some time now. It's the right time for the vendors to DIVERSIFY  their product offerings & focus on product developments in bottoms.

Why bottom weights?

• Indian cotton quality & staple length supports to spin coarser counts which are suitable to make Bottom weight fabrics
• Our weaving infrastructure suits the productions of such fabrics. These fabrics density is less & most of them are made in twill weave, which is easy to produce.
• Processing can be done in the same machines as the top weight fabrics with slight changes in settings.
• Agile solution can be offered in a segment where there is competition limited.
• Staying away from a race of commoditising product offering which will benefit in business break through & better costs too.

3 M - THE DIVERSITY MANTRA

MAN

• Look Beyond Obvious in every business opportunity to explore the gains. Design and develop an exclusive range of bottom weights which is in line with market trends & present to buyers keeping the SMART principle & 5p’s in mind. These principles were covered in a previous articles. Click here to read.
• It's important to have a processing specialist, subject matter experts & right technician in the teams. In order to handle machineries & materials wisely & to deliver first time right, the right manpower is important. Additionally, grooming & enhancing the skill set of people to cope up with modern technology is also very important.

MACHINE (at mills & process houses)

• Almost 90% of the bottom weights fabric requirement these days is for minimum 2%-3% stretch. In such a case, having the right machineries make a lot of difference. Be it sampling or bulk, the machines should be able to handle stretch fabrics & be well versed with heat setting process to deliver consistent quality.
• More & more buyers these days are looking for Bi stretch products & dual/tri blend fabrics for their bottom needs. Hence, it is imperative that machineries are able to support handling of such product type & give quality output consistently.

MATERIAL

• Usage of best available raw material ensures excellent quality, reduces rejection & wastage at various stages & helps in offering the best cost & get orders.
• Mixing & blending of different raw materials at various stages of manufacturing can yield new products which can attract the customers.This helps in gaining additional business & maximising profitability. As others would take a few seasons to crack the product, you get to enjoy the monopoly in the meantime.

Let’s apply DIVERSITY in the business, enhance our capabilities in offering bottom weights to buyers & gain the business advantage.   

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