With rich experience of working for 8 years in various export houses, Rajesh Taneja started his own company Indian Stitchers 10 years ago and has, in this decadelong journey, achieved a commendable turnover of Rs. 35 crore in FY 2014-15. Indian Stitchers holds the distinction of being one of the few companies in India doing organic garments in knits as well as woven fabric. Continuously adding new categories, products and new buyers has been one of the main reasons for the success of the company. Having realized early the importance of investing profits back into the business, Rajesh has never shied away from making financial commitments on growth, which has supported this entrepreneur, who though belonged to a middleclass family, didn’t have passion for big cars and big houses, instead he possesses a passion for organized factories and good products.
Now the proud owner of two factories in Noida with 400 machines, Rajesh joined the garment export industry as a management trainee fresh after college to fulfil his fascination to visit new countries and meet people from different cultures. His attraction to travel and meet new people saw him rise quickly in his chosen profession and soon quit as a GM-Marketing from a reputed export house to explore options for new avenues, before Indian Stitchers was initiated in 2005. “Though I did not have sound financial resources, but I was firm that I have to do my own business, and my ‘never say die’ attitude made it happen. I got support from some of my customers and people around me who had faith in my capabilities,” says Rajesh humbly. He now leads a team of approximately 500 people.
The company works with around 18 buyers and 80 per cent of its business is with Europe, as it started its operations from the same market. Apart from many medium-sized buyers, the company is also associated with buyers like Street One (CBR Fashion Group), Germany, Bonprix (Otto Group, Germany), Topshop (UK), Oysho (Inditex, Spain) and Urban Outfitters (USA). It is also catering to Macy’s through an importer and is under negotiations to start working with another big buyer directly. Rajesh sees his organization as a growing and running company, and has strategically retained old customers, while constantly building on new and bigger ones. “Few of the big buyers with major sourcing from India are now doing some business with us and the business is growing with them. We have to see where we match up with their expectations,” he says.
Whereas good growth, despite challenges and Europe focus is concerned, Rajesh confidently says that a company’s growth does not depend on any particular country or region. “We grew because we continuously added on to our product offerings, like we started with normal woven ladies garments, than we added kidswear, after that we got into knits, heavy knits and value additions. Continuing with the same strategy we stepped into organic almost four years ago. Now we have certifications and accreditations from GOTS, Sedex, BSCI, Textile Exchange and Inditex audit team. Similarly, we continuously focused on expanding our marketing, entering Spain, Germany, Denmark, UK and US too.” Today the company is manufacturing 70 per cent woven garments while the rest is in knits; furthermore it does 60 per cent women’s wear and 40 per cent kidswear. On the experience of working with both Europe and US, Rajesh shares that the European business is more personalized while business in the US is more systematic and process-driven, rather than personalized. “Being personalized means your complete involvement into product/process,” explains Rajesh. Very recently the company has added a US-based buyer for its organic products.
The company follows assembly line system and claims to have achieved 60 per cent efficiency level. It claims to give high increment to its workers and motivates them with various awards like ‘Best employee of the year’, ‘Most efficient employee’, etc. It is also planning to enhance capacity by 50 per cent, but things will be clearer after closely watching this year’s activities.
The success of the company was acknowledged recently when the company was applauded for doing highest export in the category of knitted garments and was rated as the third biggest exporter in the category of woven garments for the year 20142015 by Noida Apparel Export Promotion Cluster.
Not a company to rest on its laurels, Indian Stitchers is continuously working on cost control measures which actually correlate it with sustainability. The company is in the process to bring change to both of its factories and put them completely on LED lights, through which Rajesh expects energy saving of at least Rs. 10 lakh per year. Prior to this the focus of the company was on wastage control where it successfully saved a significant amount of resources. Earlier it was producing 3 per cent extra products per order which has now been reduced to 1.5 per cent. “Wastage is directly propositional to what we produce and how we produce; the more we produce, the less we waste, so we prefer to work on volumes,” reasons Rajesh. He further added, “To supplement that and to save on fabric we prefer to work with mill made/ autoloom fabric rather than powerloom fabric. Lot of inputs was exchanged with the quality department to control human wastage, an area that we normally neglect. The team was very cooperative and strict on following procedures laid out for wastage control which also helped to save a lot and changed mindsets. So it was result of combine efforts.”
Always quick to find solutions, when the company was facing challenges to get organic fabrics printed, especially in the month of November-December when mills don’t bother about smaller quantities or sometimes even one lakh metres, as it is the peak period of their business, Indian Stitchers got 3 mills certified on its behalf from the buyers in the NCR as they were doing a good job. The company has given them orientation too, so as to meet global requirements.
‘My HOPE’ (My Healthy Organic Pure Earth) working for organic farmers”
When Rajesh started manufacturing organic garments, another journey in the form of an NGO ‘My HOPE (My Healthy Organic Pure Earth)’ was born in 2012. Though initially it was started with a focus exclusively on organic cotton but now its product basket has increased to cover organic food also. He claims that there are about 23,000 farmers of Rajasthan, Uttaranchal, Sikkim, some parts of Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra directly or indirectly involved with My HOPE. There are more than 60 voluntaries on the ground level educating and motivating the farmers to go organic. The NGO tries to ensure that the farmers get fair price for their products. Almost 25 per cent of these farmers are involved in producing organic cotton. My HOPE is collecting funds for farmers and is now looking to work more aggressively as it is in touch with a big consultancy firm to take care of its working. “The number of farmers related to organic cotton has not increased significantly as the demand for organic garments is not increasing both in the domestic as well as international markets, especially when compared to the growth in organic food,” says Rajesh, and adds that My HOPE has ample scope for wider applications. In next one or two years, a lot of work will take place in this regard. He claims that a team is working on other products such as fertilizers which can be used as organic.
