Founded in the year 1991 as a processing plant, Suditi Industries has grown in both size and scale over the years. The company has a set-up that includes knitting, dyeing, printing, finishing and garmenting departments. This growth has allowed the company to control the processes in the value chain, which in turn has allowed them to provide standardised and quality products.
With the changing trends and the fast adapting and buying nature of the new age customers, the company identified the need to fulfill the gap for high quality fashionwear at economical prices. This led to the establishment of Riot in 2010. Riot is a one-stop shop for all kinds for apparels and fashion accessories. The idea was to display a similar rebellious nature as seen in the young adults.
“Riot is an apparel brand that caters solely to the youth. The name therefore was chosen not for its meaning but for its connotation. Our idea was to exude a similar rebellious nature as reflected in the young adults who we target. Our store , along with our tagline ‘Your life, your rules’, helps convey the same theme. We define our brand by our target. We are a young brand and provide young and funky designs be it a Western twist on Indianwear or an Indian spin on Westernwear,” says Animesh Maheshwari, Vice President, Riot, which is a retail venture of Suditi Industries.
The footprint
Currently, the brand is operated through 10 exclusive brand outlets (EBOs) in cities like Mumbai, Pune, Ahmedabad, Aurangabad, Nashik, Indore, Vadodara and Latur and presence in more than 150 multi-brand outlets (MBOs), Walmart stores and leading e-commerce portals like Myntra, Jabong, Flipkart, Fashionara, Amazon and Fashionandyou. For marketing initiatives, the company focuses on all types of print and social media.
The products
The brand offers an exciting range of products. In men’s category, the brand offers T-shirts, polos, boxers, shorts, shirts, jeans, jackets, sweatshirts and flip-flops. In womenswear, the brand offers racer backs, spaghettis, round neck tees, shirts, dresses, shrugs, jackets, boxer shorts, jeans and a few Indo-Western kurtis. “For now we are focusing on improvising our range exponentially by playing with different fabrics, print techniques and silhouettes as opposed to our usual cotton knit or round neck approach. Our USP lies in offering latest trends and new fashion at reasonable costs,” says Maheshwari.
“Our core collection starts at Rs. 599 onwards. We also have a category of round neck T-shirts with assorted prints that cost Rs. 299. Majorly the price band from Rs. 599 to Rs. 1,299 is most popular with the customers and our core and printed T-shirts for men and tops and shrugs dor women sell the most at our stores as well as e-commerce portals,” he adds.
The stores
The store format of the brand is approximately 600 sq.ft., and promises to be contemporary and youth centric with specific use of props. “Our visual merchandiser ensures that the stores have essential fixtures, wall displays and a set-up that is very trendy and pleasing to the eye. We tend to invest Rs. 15–20 lakh and expect 15–20 per cent return on investment (ROI),” he shares.
The brand has EBOs, MBOs and large format stores, and is also present on leading e-commerce portals. The products offered to these particular format stores are standardised. The layout is very youth focused, rugged as well a vibrant source and a perfect gateway to contemporary fashion experience.
The footfall and location
The brand is witnessing steady growth and is expecting better turnaround through the e-commerce platform than brick-and-mortar stores. “From the current 10 stores that we have in 8 cities, we are pleased with the responses we have received for our products; this has helped us in accelerating the pace of our brand recognition. On an average, we have 500 footfalls a month per store,” he reveals.
Highlighting the strategy on location Maheshwari shares: “We follow a simple strategy: to be in close proximity to our customers. The closer you are to the vicinity the more footfalls you see at your store.”
On marketing
“We are a youth-centric brand so our concentration on marketing strategies weaves around this particular audience. Our activations happen on both online and offline platforms. We have adopted a strategy to initiate only those activities that connect with our target audience. We focus on tie-ups with colleges, festive events, sports cafés, etc. to promote our brand. For online promotion, we connect through various contests and promotional activities,” informs Maheshwari.
In the past, Riot has been associated with several college fests. One of them was IIT Powai’s Mood Indigo 2011 festival wherein Riot sponsored worth Rs. 5 lakh and was the apparel partner. Riot also co-sponsored two events for the festival – Vogue and Choreo Night. To create awareness about the brand, advertisements were placed at strategic locations in the campus along with kiosks to display merchandise. In addition, exclusive branding was done for the events of Choreo Night where Riot was present on the backdrops and hoarding of the events.
Future plans
“We are highly focused on our e-commerce as 60 per cent of our sales are driven on these e-commerce portals. We tend to reserve a certain amount of stock from our latest collection for these players, who eventually sell them on their portals. Recently, we have also launched our own e-commerce website – www.riotjeans.com – and have experienced good response from our customers,” concludes Maheshwari.
The brand frequently organises discounting offers for their customer base on their online platform. In addition, the company has tied up with bloggers and shows that run social media contests and has been associated with them as gifting partners. In coming times, the company plans to initiate more activities and promotions that will persuade and excite the customers.
