Amongst the first exporters to explore the South American markets, comprising mainly of Argentina, Peru, Columbia and Chile, Jyoti Apparels got a huge flip to its business in this region through its association with Falabella, which has supported the exporters product strength to capture good orders from the retail giant. In conversation with Apparel Online, Rakesh Magu, Partner, Jyoti Apparels shares his experience of working with the buying office and also taking forward the lineage of goodwill created by his father HKL Magu by maintaining a good working relationship not only with the buyers but with factories, mills and people as well.
Though Jyoti Apparels had attempted to work with Falabella many times in the past, the first breakthrough came when the sourcing office opened its doors in India with booking an order of 50,000 pieces in November 2012, wherein it did a business of US $ 1.5 million. Today the business it does for the retailer has swelled in a big way. Not only has the volume of business increased, but the product range and brands that they are catering to has also multiplied significantly in a short period of almost two years.
Initially working with kidswear for the South American departmental store, the company has now also ventured into fashion products in ladieswear primarily based on their performance. Further, the company has also started working with the brand Tottus, a supermarket chain under Falabella, which is primarily a high volume business. “We have dedicated two factories to Falabella with individual teams to exclusively handle the buyer, looking at the business and growth with them and I am expecting another 15-20 per cent growth with them. We won their confidence by delivering 90-95 per cent of the goods on time and the quality inspections conducted by third-party testing agencies were always satisfactory,” informs Rakesh. Currently the company’s percentage of work for Falabella in kidswear is still more than the ladieswear, but the way the business is growing, Rakesh is sure that they will be at par soon.
Being an old hand at working with the South American market, Jyoti Apparels understands the advantage of growing business in the region which is opposite in season and has similar kind of fashion throughout the year. For fashion inspiration, the company relies on buyers, who like to work with their own styles. “In the last 3-4 years exporters are focusing on markets such as South America and South Africa because there is shrinkage in business demand from the Europe and the US. They want to spread their market base wider because if one country is not doing well, the other one would be better off, we have an edge as this has always been a strategy for us,” shares Rakesh.
In order to provide high quality services to the buyers, the company works on a business model of dedicating a factory with a complete team of merchandisers, pattern masters, quality inspectors, etc. to a single buyer, to maintain quality and timely delivery of booking orders. Currently working with 20-25 buyers, the company’s 12 units are divided among its buyers. “For Falabella I am personally involved in each and every style and I know their style numbers by heart. It’s a performance-based business, till the time you don’t perform, no one would give business,” claims Rakesh. Further, the company believes in strong relationship building not only with its buyers, but also with the Managers who work in the factories. The company caters to product development through its team of designers not only in India but also in UK who provide design and artworks in lieu with the market demand. In terms of fashion, Falabella is more European-driven with four seasons buying mainly in November, January, April and August.
Being an old hand at working with the South American markets, Jyoti Apparels understands the advantage of growing business in the region which is opposite in season and has similar kind of fashion throughout the year. The company is expecting another 15-20 per cent growth with Falabella.
With a business of around US $ 25 million last year Jyoti Apparels works on its core strength of being flexible and open to whatever prices the buyers come up with, which is amongst the primary reason for being a preferred supplier. “We want the buyer to come in and give business; therefore we are very flexible in quantities, even if they want to place 300 pieces. Our strength is also our dedicated and committed human resource which will always remain the backbone of the apparel industry, regular upgradation of technology in our factories and emphasis on maintaining high quality standards is a culture. Our other strength is our flexibility to be able to manufacture volumes from 300 pieces to 3,00,000 pieces per order as we have both the capability and capacity to handle this. Our in-house Design Studio also provides new options for us to work on new markets and new products. I have learnt the vision from my father who has a very humble and positive approach in the business,” claims Rakesh. The success of this strategy can be gauged from the fact that last month Jyoti Apparels was awarded the best performing supplier from India for brand Superdry UK on many core parameters including quality, price and delivery.
Like many others in the industry the company faces challenge in terms of pricing, Rakesh sadly notes that there is very fierce competition in the market and if an exporter leaves an order there are 20 others to pick it up. “Sometimes exporter do this just to get entry into the market, but they don’t understand that going forward they spoil the market. We provide open costing to buyers and we have noticed that if they go to another exporter many times they come back to us after 2 months with the same order complaining about these exporters not meeting deadlines or fulfilling it,” says Rakesh adding that it is better to be honest and transparent than over-project and lose face at the end. For the company, issues related to compliance, labour availability and lead times can be managed but the increasing competition amongst exporters leading to price war is a matter of worry.
With a current capacity of 4,50,000- 5,00,000 pieces per month through its 12 units having around 2,000 machines, the company focuses on each buyer from quality of its products to its timely delivery. Through constant automation, flexibility and the openness to add new buyers and to explore new markets, going forward the company plans to “tap and grow on our strengths and explore the Japanese market with whom we have only worked with small quantities till date,” concludes Rakesh.
Bharat Tex Special Report 2026 
