Crafting clothes for new born, toddlers and kids is no child’s play. FS Mini Klub is stitching together a whole new story in the kids wear space in India.
Company Background
FS Mini Klub is part of the parent company, First Steps Baby Wear Pvt. Ltd. (FSBW), established in 2002. The company is known to be specialists in high quality and whole sale manufacturing of baby clothes to International brands like Mothercare, Woolworths, Debenhams, Asda and Landmark in Europe, UK, Middle East and Australia. With an initial turn over of 5 million US Dollars, FSBW has been growing at 30 percent year on year and is expected to reach a turn over close to 55 million US Dollars. The company that started with 60 machines in 2002 has now grown to 6 factories with over 2000 machines, a design studio, dedicated fabric sourcing and storage warehouse. FSBW is run with the help of 5200 employees and produces 50 million garments annually.
It is a passion driven business by Bob Pasi, Managing Director, FSBW, who meticulously runs through the manufacturing for different brands, including its marketing strategies, thus providing an end-to-end solution to his customers. FSBW also provides contractual work where the company’s design team sitting in Birmingham works around conceptualising the designs of the garments, working closely with clients to fill in all the gaps in terms of product mix and range. “It is very hard to get a specialised factory in this category of business in terms of product and in terms of design. We provide the entire design solution,” explains Bob,”We cater to most of the retailers now, providing the entire solution from the new born to a 3-10 year old. We are specialists in this particular category, shares Bob Pasi ”
The Factory
Overall, FSBW produces 65 lac units per week, with close to 400-450 different styles, managing everything from conceptualising, the design to the end product. International brands provide their specifics which are then tried on mannequins and then on live models for better fit quality assessment. Equipped with state of the art machines imported from Germany, the sampling requirements are tested at various stages. All the check points are run through at the main unit which is 600,000 sq.ft. in area.
Pasi elaborates, “All the clothes pass through a scanner that detects metal contamination and broken needles. There is a standard yarn that we use and a standard cotton that we use. We have our own knitting machines located in Tripura.”
FSBW factory unit is also equipped with softwares that manage accurate laser cutting as well as colour management. All colours are imported and meet the safety requirement of kids. Clients are offered the flexibility of making changes in designs on the spot.
All employees are provided with transport, on-sight doctors, an ambulance and a creche for children. The factory will be green certified pretty soon, with the addition of solar panels and other sustainable features.
The Brand
FS Mini Klub promises to celebrate every stage of the first 10 years of a child’s life with innovations and designs that have been lab tested and certified safe for a baby. To understand India’s comprehensive market data, FS Mini Klub caters to different key markets. The brand is currently available at Shoppers Stop, Lifestyle, Mega Mart and Central outlets. The brand is also available on online platforms like Flipkart, Babyoye, Firstcry, Hopscotch, Snapdeal and Jabong.
FS Mini Klub offers apparel that reflect a child’s interests at each stage, while keeping with the latest designs and trends for the Indian market. The use of softer threads, button pops instead of regular buttons and creating garments that accommodate diapers are some of the innovations from the brand.
The FS Mini Klub range offers ‘everyday essentials’, that includes clothing that meet the everyday needs of your baby and the ‘fashion essentials’, that is a value added collection. The 0 – 12 months product range includes body and sleep suits, bibs, mittens, blankets, bath towels and other accessories. The 12 – 36 months category offers hard clothing with T shirts, denims, frocks, shorts, leggings and nightwear.
The 4 – 10 year old segment has more of the ‘angelic brat’, smart casual wear, which includes T shirts, shirts, denims, dungarees, play set ,tracks, frocks skirts, shorts and night wear.
Eugene Cooper, Business Head, FS Mini Klub says,”We started this brand to glorify the childhood and make the first 10 years special. We offer a category that is for 12 months to 3 years and for kids up to 10 years of age. We are a very new brand, but we have already established pan India presence, through retail and online verticals.”
Safety First !
Safety becomes a priority at every stage of a baby’s initial years into the world. Kidswear clothing manufactured for FS Mini Klub goes through several tests for safety at every stage of the production process. Clothes go through a metal detector to spot metal contamination from broken needles and contamination from dyes or chemicals that are often used for colouring fabrics and threads. The button pops and other accessories also go through a saliva test using state of the art equipment imported from Germany. Pasi explains “All products manufactured meet the standardised requirements of EU, a UK body that governs the requirements of product safety for babies.”
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