ABOUT FABINDIA• Founded by American, John Bissell to:

– Develop market for hand-woven products – Provide rural employment

• Incorporated in 1960 in Delhi to export upholstery fabric• By 1965, revenues of Rs. 2 million due to:

– AS Khera, supplier of hand-woven rugs etc from Panipat– Habitat, major UK buyer of Fabindia Panipat products

• 1974 saw Fabindia’s first retail store in Greater Kailash with ad-hoc merchandising

• 1977-Featured contemporary design to attract consumers and designers• Garments were introduced in 1980s after John Bissell got khadi shirts made for

himself• Habitat was acquired in 1992 and Fabindia could no longer continue selling to it• John Bissell dies in 1998, passing the baton to son William Bissell who becomes

MD in 1999

CONTINUED• PRESENCE:- The stores of FABINDIA are located all over the world with 99

stores in all the major cities and states of India. Moreover FABINDIA offers its stores in various international places including UAE, Dubai, Bahrain, Italy and Rome.

INDUSTRY OVERVIEW• The apparel industry is India's largest foreign exchange earners,

accounting for nearly 16% of India's total exports. In 1996 India textile export amounted to rupees 35000 crores of which apparel occupied over rupees 14000 crores . The traditional cloth market is growing at a rate of 11% a year.

PRODUCT PORTFOLIO

It’s product ranges from:-Garments for men and women.AccessoriesHome linen and furnishing.Home productsFloor coveringsBody care productsOrganic food products and ethnic jewellery

MARKETING MIX

• PRICE:- FABINDIA’S product range enables it to provide a wide range of products in a wide price range. The product ranges from garments for men and women to upholstery, furniture etc. FabIndia has tried to make sure that the customer cost remains affordable and gives “value for money”. To this end it has expanded it’s range of garment starting from rupees 200 to rupees 2000 in order to provide something for its customers.

• PROMOTION:- FABINDIA has traditionally relied on word of mouth advertising. It believes that product speaks for itself and this strategy has uptill now worked very well. It believes that only problem in this strategy is that customer do not know the location of the store, so to overcome this they have started using various tools such as mobile marketing, advertorials in newspaper to aware the customers about heir stores.

Contd...• PLACE:- It has 99 stores location across India. It is trying to increase

coverage in order to make sure that the products are available at large number of places as possible. It also differentiate it’s store according to the product’s stored. This ensures convenience for the customer since the products are available in the same store or in the nearby stores.

• PRODUCT:-FABINDIA’S product are its differentiating factor and it has made sure that the quality and style of the product is maintained over the years. It has a wide range of products ranging from garment’s to organic food. All the products have one factor in common I:e handmade and thus supports artisans. This is a very strong customer value leveraged by FABINDIA which support poor artisans and provide livelihood to a large no. of people.

COMPETITION

Secondary competitor Strength Weakness

Tailoring outlets 1. Reaching out to customers with large dispersion.2. Ensures convenience of demanding service.

1. Very fragmented business approach.

NGO’s promoting handicrafts

1. Strong community based operation.2. Complementary products manufactured with other firms.

1. Lack of retailing expertise and inability to minimize cost.

COMPETITION

Primary competitor Strength WeaknessRetailing houses(shoppers stop, Westside, reliance trend, Globus)

1. National presence of outlets.

2. Retailing expertise and competitive pricing

Diversity of product is very less.

Designer Boutiques 1. Scope of product customization.

2. High level of customer intimacy.

No uniformity in price across products.

SWOT ANALYSIS• STRENGTHS:- weakness:-

Differentiable products. No promotion strategy.

Brand recognition and loyalty. Limited business channels.

Diverse product mix. Inconsistent product quality.

In house manufacturing. Low awareness.

Price trend setters.Different categories of store. Customer loyalty.

Cont.…• OPPORTUNITIES:- THREATS-Promoting e-business channel. Substitute

producing competitor. Organic food products. Not in touch

with fashion trends. Customer acquisition strategies.

Government Interventions• Indian apparel manufacturers are facing severe

problems given that the rise in price and scarcity of fabrics and the industry has sought govt interventions to initiate some kind of mechanism that will check uncontrolled exports of yarns and cotton from the country.

• Garments exporter association has expressed concern over the sharp rise in price of cotton which is severely affecting the performance of Indian apparel industry.

• The price of yarn are rising given the rising exports of cotton to western countries. It is manufactured in western countries and again exported to India which is giving tough time to apparel manufacturers.

• Government is thinking of banning exports of cotton or put on end of high quality exports from going to western countries. Government has been requested to impose high duty on cotton export in order to deter exports of cotton.

FUTURE PLANSThe future plans of FABINDIA includes leveraging

the organic products section, since it is still in a nascent stage in India. It plans to expand nationally and internationally.it is also trying to reduce the number of defects in the products to a minimal which includes bleeding of color, shrinkage etc.

For FABINDIA William Bissell has set a very ambitious target of reaching 250 stores and a turnover of rupees 2000 crores at the end of 2011.the growth is expected to come from new stores as well as increase in sales from existing stores. This increase will be achieved by increased emphasis on premium products.

Growth in locations was expected to come from expansion in overseas market as well as greater penetration in the markets in the smaller towns. FABINDIA planned to expand significantly in Tier II and Tier III cities.