Don’t be Banal..Take Some Risks in Formal Dressing

                   

As a person it is in my very nature to roam around the bylanes of whichever new place I visit. It was on such a trip in the lanes of Mahabalipuram, that I chanced upon the banner of this shop- Suba Silk House.

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As you can see from the photograph, the banner says “Don’t be Banal..take some risks in formal dressing”- now Banal(meaning commonplace) is a word which is not so commonly used in Indian context.  Interested, I entered the shop and found this gentleman in his 50’s sitting and reading a book. He introduced himself as Mr. Sekhar, and readily obliged for an interview. One of the reasons fortunately was that he knows about Great Lakes, and was most respectful of Uncle Bala.

 The half an hour discussion with Mr. Sekhar was an eye-opener to the extent to which our world has globalised, that a small garment store in the remote south Indian town of Mahabalipuram sends his shipments of clothes to as far as Scandinavian countries like Sweden and Denmark.

Mr. Sekhar is a native of Mahabalipuram and he set up his shop in 1992, making it one the oldest garment stores in Mahabalipuram currently. He specialises on fancy ladies garments made from Kancheepuram silk, and has varied items ranging from silk curtains, bed sheets, to very interesting and innovative sleeping bags.  Mr. Sekhar usually buys the defective silk sarees from Kancheepuram at 10% rate, and then removes the defective parts out and makes the dresses and other items from the good silk. This is how he started 20 years back, with a meagre capital, and he himself being the only tailor. Now he has 6-7 tailors working under him, and produces a yearly turnover of 15-16 lakhs, with a personal profit of 5-6 lakhs every year, inspite of keeping only 20-25% profit margin.

Mr. Sekhar’s main target segment are the foreigners who come visit Mahabalipuram. Truly we say that experience is wealth, and Mr Sekhar from his 20 years of experience understands the exact psyche of European customers. The main USP’s of his shop are that he doesn’t bargain, and all are Fixed Price items, though the price itself is very reasonable. For example: The dress in the above picture costs only Rs 300/-.
Now, the European customers, by nature, don’t like to go to a shop and bargain. Also Mr. Sekhar gives tremendous importance on quality. He takes measures like double stitching compared to the normal criss-cross single stitching method, making the garments much more durable.
 Also, he doesn’t try to push sale by calling out for customers standing outside his shop. In his own words “Europeans are very smart. They come to a place and usually stays for 15-20 days. They search the market completely, and having travelled vastly across the globe they have good understanding of materials, and what is good and what is bad in general.” So after scouting the entire market they finally go to the shop with the best product. Hence, the shop being not so flashy, and not doing push selling, doesn’t affect much. This keen understanding has made his shop one of the most sought after shop amongst foreigners, even in face of stiff competition. This has also helped him develop a vast network for exporting his goods. Usually the foreign customers who wants to trade, first takes back small quantities like 50-60 of different items and then depending on the response they get in their native markets, they order for more via email, and Mr Sekhar sends the goods via International courier. Mr. Sekhar has wide customer networks in European countries like Sweeden, Denmark, France.
Another major aspect of this foreigners based business is that since these foreigners are mostly tourisst, so customers are rarely repeated, and Mahabalipuram being such a famous tourist spot, there’s no dearth of new customers.
Interestingly he says that the devastating Tsunami of 2004, has actually acted a catalyst for big boom in the Mahabalipuram Market, because it made the place famous worldwide, and there has been a constant increase in the foreign tourist population every year evensince, which in-turn has led to more business.

Mr Sekhar has been very practical and prudent in his life. Though he doesn’t hold any formal educational degree and is just a std. 12 pass, he has educated his children well, and interestingly his son studies Fashion designing and helps his father design new clothes as per the latest trends. This keeps Mr Sekhar one step ahead of his competitors and maintain the novelty quotient of the shop.

This half an hour conversation with Mr. Sekhar was really enriching and provided deep insights as to how you can start as a small venture and then spread out globally, while still maintaining the basic ethics of business.

Thank You,
Abhradeep Sarkar
FT13397