Being a reputed socks manufacturing company in the hub of womenswear apparels is a rare and difficult business which requires extraordinary determination to achieve success. High Street Fashions, Jaipur, with a business of more than Rs. 50 crore, and which is soon going to complete 25 years of its inception under the effective leadership of Raj Sethia, CEO and MD of the company, is a live example of the same. Raj came to Jaipur with the vision of setting up a socks manufacturing unit aimed at capturing the international market. In a candid discussion with Apparel Online, Raj shares his journey – from how he started and grew.
After shifting base from Kolkata in search of a quieter life, the company started on a positive note with the European market, but soon with the Korean currency’s devaluation, the supplier faced a sudden unexpected downfall in business. Within only a few days, the major international market shifted their focus towards Korea leaving the exporter empty-handed. “At that very moment we realized that we can’t limit ourselves to international market only, so we decided to venture into the domestic market as well and were lucky to get a tie-up with the multinational major Adidas, which was also searching for partners to make its presence in India,” recalls Raj. High Street Fashions solely claims of handling the manufacturing for Adidas for 13 years since it was started in India. Today, this company is going steady in both domestic as well as export markets.
Having major export share in European market, the company also exports to North American market, Peru and Chile.
Neeta Sethia, wife of Raj Sethia, also partakes in this business and in fact is a big support to him in the preliminary phase as he used to travel a lot for business. In his absence, she took care of the factory and the overall company independently.
90 per cent of the company’s total production is into basic as well as specialized socks like diabetic socks, flight socks, socks for varicose, while 10 per cent is into organic leggings, wrist bands, head bands, knee support, elbow support, adult travel band. Products other than socks were started by the company on buyers’ push as they were impressed with the company. These separate products in High Street Fashions are handled by specially imported machines. As Raj proudly says, “We are working with world’s top brands like Adidas, Reebok, Eminence, Luna Leggings America, Provogue, Basics, Yonex, VIP, Zovi, and maintaining quality is our strength from day one. Before finalizing the buyers, we have to make up our mind to install specialized machines of renowned companies. We were the first one to import Italian machines, at a time when nobody had that kind of technology. At present, we are adept at working on machines like Sangiacomo, Italy; Soosan, Korea; Heliot, France; Technopea, Italy; Conti Complett, Italy and producing 10 million pairs in a year. Advance infrastructure has enabled us to produce seamless products as per the standards of these top brands.”
Being an ISO 9001:2008 certified company and having a Sedex certification, High Street Fashions emphasizes on the usage of the best raw materials like finest mercerized/combed or organic cotton yarn which are directly sourced from reputed mills of India and plated with lycra and spandex. Some such rare yarns include ‘coolmax’, ‘thermolite’ (for thermal use), ‘bamboo’ (for sensitive skin) ‘lurex’ (for shining effect), ‘super wash wool’ (for smooth and softer feel), ‘micro polyester’, ‘micro modal’, ‘modal cotton’, etc. to name a few. These yarns are not only AZO-free but also free from any harmful chemicals and meet the Oeko-Tex standards. The socks are also pre-washed and treated with imported antimicrobials (Aegis & Purista’s) and there are also aloe vera treated socks.
However, it was a tough call for Raj to manage both the production and efficient supply of products which are not related to this hub, and with a team of workers who were neither skilled nor interested to make socks. But Raj proved to be a winner among all these challenges and managed so well that today his company is the only one in the city manufacturing socks so powerfully. “We started quite strategically by doing tie-ups with the companies, providing us machines, to train our people over here. So, they gave us technicians and we also arranged some freelancers from Italy, who helped us,” avers Raj. The workers’ interest level was also raised by generating facilities which eventually resulted in getting many workers to be associated with the company for a long time even now. Being in Jaipur also has some added advantages like lower electricity prices, minimum labour wages which ultimately led to less cost of production for the company even in the advent of lack of raw material resources unlike other cities of Rajasthan, Delhi and Mumbai.
Sharing his future outlook, Raj states that his company is in the process to add a new factory with an additional capacity of 5 million pairs in a year. Expecting 20 per cent surge in the current fiscal, the company is also planning to diversify in the new but niche segments of textile-based product. To meet this target, the DPR has already been prepared and things are under process.
Aishwarya Sethia, daughter of Raj Sethia and the next generation in the business, is also exploring new opportunities and experiencing good response from online sales. “I have observed that in India, people are more inclined to buy branded products rather than best quality unbranded products. We are, therefore, trying to create domestic awareness about the variety of socks we produce and how our specialization in this segment can benefit them. It will enhance our reach into domestic market too.”
