DSIJ Interview With Abhijit Warange CFO KKCL

"The market is moving towards branded segment slowly"

Abhijit Warange CFO KKCL

  

In your experience, what are the top key areas a CFO needs to look into?

CFO should focus on bottomline growth, besides topline growth. Risk mitigation is another major role of CFO in the company. We at Kewal Kiran have always focused on profitable and healthy growth. Focus on cash flows of the company is another major factor in retail business as business needs strong balance sheet to support the growth in the long run. In the changing times, CFOs are also a part of talent strategy and talent building to achieve goals of the company.

What are the key skills sets required to be a successful CFO?

feel CFOs in the company should lead the change and make the organisation adaptable to ever-changing needs of the business. The businesses are transforming so also we need to transform to meet the new age requirements of the industry. Ability to solve the problems from roots rather than working on short term problems and delegation of the work and not micro managing everything.

What synergies do you expect from the acquisition of ‘Desi Belle’?

What are your future plans for women’s wear collection? We are an established branded menswear player in the market and we know the dynamics of the market well. We have recently ventured into women’s wear by acquiring Desi Belle brand and have recently launched new Autumn Winter Collection’2019 in our recent event at Goa. The footfalls at our stores will increase as the family can shop for all their shopping needs. Going forward, we are opening medium-sized stores in the range of 2,000 sq.ft. to 4,000 sq.ft. to cater to both men’s and women’s wear in our stores. We will be retailing Desi Belle across our distribution channels like distributors, large format stores, MBOs, EBOs and e-commerce.

What do you perceive as potential challenges for the fashion industry?

We compete with both domestic and international leading denim players in the country. The biggest opportunity and competition is from unorganised sector. The market is moving towards branded segment slowly with increasing disposable incomes, internet penetration leading to fashion consciousness and a will to make a statement in the society by wearing branded denims and other apparels

What is the growth outlook for KKCL?

The company under the leadership Kewalchand P Jain has established itself in denim and other menswear segment and now has phased plans to foray into women’s wear with its acquisition of Desi Belle and gradually also kids wear over a period of time. KKCL’s MBO (MultiBrand Outlets) penetration stands at 3,500 outlets and has an active distributor network of 125 channels across the country. The current EBOs store count stands at 336 and the company would like to expand 10% of the current stores every year. The company would take its distributors count to 200, MBOs to more than 4,500 and EBOs to 500 in the next five years.

The company has achieved net worth of Rs.500 crore and cash in books to the tune of Rs.280 crore. So, the company would like to become Rs.1000 crore company in the next five years with aggressive marketing initiatives and added contribution from new segments like women's wear and kid's wear in future.

How bullish are you on Indian economic growth story?

Indian economy may have seen some moderation in recent times, but we are very positive on the country’s growth story which will be led by growth in both key parameters, namely, private consumption and government spending. In the recent budget for FY20, the government has laid out its agenda for high single digit economic growth in the coming years. We believe that the government's target of reaching Rs.5 trillion economy in the next five years is very much achievable on the back of favourable demographic dividend of this country.

There is an evident growth in household saving rates in the coming period which will drive the consumption story. Moreover, revival in rural economy, infusing liquidity into the system and cut in interest rates going ahead will eventually help in overall economic growth.