In all aspects, from raw materials sourced for product as well as the process that leads to the final product, we follow global best practices

We spoke to Apurba Chakraborty, CEO, IDOS India to understand more about their brand and the work they do in workwear in India, their focus areas, industry verticals they target, what sets them apart from competition and their plans for future.

Interviewed by Adeesh Sharma

Please tell us more about IDOS brand, its focus areas and industry verticals you work with?

IDOS Branded Workwear came into being in 2020 when we realized that COVID has clean-wiped the Workwear industry with people only focusing on PPE and almost all Industrial factories were all closed. We realized our association with Dickies may not last in these trying conditionsso, we decided to form our own brands. The two brands – IDOS for actual Workwear and ProtectU for Healthcare industry and Flame-Resistant clothing. As COVID impact started to reduce, we went going back to our existing clients and also to new clients, and slowly we saw the numbers coming back. We have also been competing with a lot of new indigenous brands that have come up. We continued to pursue paints and chemical companies, hardware & tools and the automotive sector again. Overall, the numbers have slowly come back to where they were before. The Protect U range is for the pharma sector, medical sector and in flame resistant areas of industry. This segment has picked up even better for us as Industriesregain momentum. We also plan to get into sales and distributorship agreements with companies in Gulf to further expand our global outreach.

How do you justify premium pricing of your products?

In all aspects of raw materials sourced for the final product as well as the process that leads to the final product, all such SOPsin our factories are at par with what the Group does while supplying to popular global brands like H&M, GAP, Columbia Sportswear, Harley Davidson, etc. All our products to these global brands as well as our domestic clients have the same standard of compliance with HSE regulations for Workers on our premises. On the quality front as well, we use the globally renowned AQL standards for the garments industry, across our product - lines.

Some examples you can give to showcase your workwear for various industry segments.

Broadly from simple Shirts and Pants which are more worn in India as Workwear as opposed to the workers abroad, who prefer to wear coveralls. Our range covers comfortable one-piece coveralls, so we do a lot of shirts and pants for the industry including not just factory floors but offices. For some of our clients like hotels and hospitals we do the entire segments fromShirts and Pants for their Front offices as well as chef coats and chef trousers for their kitchen areas and cafeteria, while Protect U serves them with lab coats and medical scrubs, nursing uniforms, operation theatre uniforms, patient gowns and uniforms to cover all age groups, and also maternity gowns for carrying mothers. For Pharma industry’, we make special suits called Electrostatic Discharge (ESD) suits which have fabric content that negates the static energy of the body plus there is no lint or cotton from the fibre that can contaminate their formulations. Similarly, the same category of fabrics and suits are required for the Microelectronics industry such as Silicon-chip manufacturing companies, Mobile Assembling units, etc. Many such units are in SEZs where they are allowed to import such items under duty concessions which is a challenge for us. We are trying to match the global suppliers of such garments and penetrate that market and have started being successful in this. For such industries, not only the quality of the garment but the whole handling process must be immaculate to ‘Clean-room’ standards.

Anything innovative you plan to launch and what are your plans for future?

We want to penetrate the Gulf market as there are enough South Asians there who are looking for alternatives to China and other countries who are traditionally supplying huge quantities of Workwear there. We believe if we have a good sales-force there and a good Distributor or agency that can penetrate; we will get good volumes from Gulf Countries as we do a lot of construction related high-visibility workwear. We also make heavy coveralls; we specialize in those projects and Gulf is a great market for such products. All this we are focusing on and due to the price-sensitive nature of Indian market we focus more on the basic products although we do get sporadic enquiries from leading doctors, nursing homes, elite group of engineers, management professionals, etc. who are looking for unique high-end Workwear products. We are trying to introduce an elite collection with top performance and quality standards, these will be customized for industry needs, with materials sourced from best locations globally. The threads used, seams, sewing quality will be top-notch and these products will be priced at a premium to target the elite segment of industry; who expect premium international standards only.

How do you market your products to the elite or the niche segment users?

We have a sales team that reaches out directly to enterprises, hospitals, nursing homes, etc. We usually look for scale rather than small segments. Our sales team regularly shows them our samples, our presentations about the group, size and scale of our factories, etc. This way we also promote the quality of our products in terms of fit, finish and quality of materials used. We also intend to penetrate the social media space more aggressively using e-Commerce channels, and reach out to specialist professionals such as leading Engineers, Doctors, Dentists, etc. We look at specific needs of elite professionals and cater to those needs.