It’s the opening day of Bharat Tex — the mega textile trade fair at Bharat Mandapam, in New Delhi. The attractively designed Trident pavilion is buzzing with visitors. The ₹6,808 crore home textile, yarn, paper and chemicals company’s founder Rajinder Gupta, his son Abhishek, and daughter Neha Gupta Bector are busy in meetings with buyers. Amidst the range of bed linen and towels, the upscale LuxeHome section by myTrident, the domestic arm of the Ludhiana-headquartered textile exporter, catches the eye. myTrident is weaving an ambitious growth strategy around the new super-luxury line that was launched at the fair.
NextGen is clearly making its presence felt. While Abhishek is entrenched in the export-focused Trident group, myTrident, which is a separate entity, is Neha Bector’s responsibility.
The 34-year-old is married into the Bector family, known for its Cremica and English Oven brands, and has spent several years working in the FMCG set-up. “I learnt a lot about the differences in outlets, how a customer is being serviced, the dynamism of the product, competitive pricing, brand building, the narrative of the brand,” she says.
“After Bombay Dyeing, there’s been no other home textile brand that is as big a household name.” She aims to fill that space.
Segmented strategy
Bector says the Indian consumer is becoming more aware about aspects such as thread counts and so on. myTrident is taking heed. “We have an opening price point brand called Everyday, where we do a 400 GSM (grams per square metre) towel and a 144 thread count bedsheet; and we have another brand called Home Essential, where we do a 450 GSM towel.” At a more premium level is the Classic brand, which has 550 GSM towels and 210 thread count bedsheets. “The Classic bath towel is, I think, the best selling in the country today.”
myTrident’s Shivan & Narresh collection
The brand has two luxury ranges — Indulgence and NectarSoft — which offer 300-400 thread count bedsheets and towels of 600-700 GSM. “Now we’ve launched a super-luxury range called LuxeHome, because some retailers told us that Indian consumers are ready for any price point product, as long as it is the best in the world.”
This includes Turkish towels, bamboo cotton towels, Egyptian lyocell bedsheets and 600-plus thread count bedsheets.
The designer range
Prominently displayed at the Trident pavilion are designer duo Shivan-Narresh’s creations. The designers, famous for their holiday and resort wear, are explaining the inspiration to visitors. “The idea is to push the boundary in home textiles,” says Narresh, pointing to a cheery holiday print inspired from a trip to Finland. “If we can transport people on a holiday right in their bedrooms, then, as a holiday wear brand, we have been successful.”
Bector says the company has its own team of over 40 talented designers but decided to attempt something radically different. “To break the clutter, we experimented with Shivan-Narresh last year,” she explains. “They were bright, vibrant bedsheets and they flew. So much so, there was nothing left to put in my house,” she rues.
The brand aims to onboard one new big name this year, she says, with myTrident also looking at ethnic craft traditions and freelance designers to break “our design mould and get a fresh perspective”.
Luxe and ecomm push
On the brand’s bet on luxury, Bector says, “Luxury for us, the year before last, was about 12 per cent of the portfolio. Last year it went up to 16-17 per cent. I hope this year we touch about 20 per cent.” She says the company is seeing more growth in the premium segment rather than the mass segment.
“The consumption, overall, has been a little low and, after Diwali, there was a significant lull, but premium has retained its share. The end of quarter three and quarter four had been quiet. But what compensated was ecommerce and quick commerce,” says Bector.
“We are selling about 15,000 bedsheets and towels overall on quick commerce platforms. We are among the top ten sellers of bedsheets on Amazon, Myntra and Ajio,” she says. Ecommerce contributes 15 per cent of myTrident’s turnover.
Amping up brand presence
“We are large spenders on digital. We have a great D2C website, so a lot of the call-to-action takes the consumer directly to the product on the website,” says Bector. myTrident also invests in massive outdoor campaigns. “We were in (reality TV show) Big Boss last year. The main bed on the show was done by us.”
“It takes years to create a brand,” admits Bector, “and every year we are doing a bit more.”