In conversation with Vinod Kumar Gupta, Dollar Industries

In our conversation with Vinod Kumar Gupta, Managing Director of Dollar Industries Ltd., he talks about Dollar’s new brand identity, post Covid communication strategy and how the brand is innovating to enhance CX among other things.

Agency Reporter – What does the new brand identity stand for? Apart from the logo and colour what else is new at Dollar?

V.K. Gupta – Dollar’s new brand identity ‘Wear the Change’ is aligned with our business ethics to constantly innovate and keep up with the latest trends and transforming consumer needs. For the first time, we have focused on changing our brand architecture along with our logo. The re-branding exercise is a very conscious and calculated decision to create a youth-friendly image in the market. Our portfolio consists of a plethora of products; therefore we focused on consolidating the products under 5 broad categories – Men, Women, Junior, Always and Thermals. This assisted us to re-organise the brand architecture altogether making it more simplified and precise. The company has categorized and streamlined the product portfolio into.

AR – What will be the main elements of Dollar’s post Covid communication strategy?

VKG – Due to the Covid-19, we have witnessed a lot of changes globally and locally which has made all the businesses and brands to analyse and retrospect ways to sail through this crisis. Even we had to unveil our new brand identity via e-press conference for the very first time during the lockdown period. Hence, adapting to the ‘New Normal’ is the mantra to get through tough times.

As a brand, we would now be mainly focusing on a single brand architecture and product offerings in the coming times. We are concentrating primarily on online/e-commerce platforms as the consumers are sceptical about shopping at offline stores due to the prevailing lockdown and social distancing norms.

We at Dollar strongly support digitization and focusing on optimum utilisation of our digital platforms to communicate our new brand identity.

AR – Apart from a new brand identity & a fresh look, how is Dollar innovating to enhance customer experience, especially after the market has reopened and there is more than usual demand for the product.

VKG – At Dollar, our loyal and strong distribution and retail network have always been the backbone of our successful empire. With this new branding exercise, we recognise the immense potential of unexplored regions and are working on developing a strong omni-channel and supply chain. Our sales force traverses the length and breadth of the nation to ensure we seize unexplored opportunities.  

AR – How do you look at the growth of Indian hosiery industry in the past 5 years? What has been the biggest catalyst of this growth?

VKG – The Indian textile industry is one of the oldest and the most diverse industries in India. According to the IBEF Report 2018-19, it contributes 2% of the GDP of India as well as employs more than 45 million. India is world’s second largest exporter of textiles and clothing. The increase in demand is expected to continue at 12 per cent CAGR to reach US$ 220 billion by 2025.

Robust demand, competitive advantage, policy support and increasing investments have been the growth drivers for the industry.

Hosiery products fall under the ‘basic necessity’ category. We are positive that post Covid situation improves; we will witness a growth in the segment during the peak seasons. The future of the Indian textile industry looks hopeful as it is supported by both strong domestic consumption as well as export demand.  

AR – Since Dollar doesn’t have its own stores, has it resulted in any major bottlenecks in terms of visibility, brand recall, sales etc.

VKG – Till now, we have not faced any major bottlenecks in terms of visibility or brand recall even if we do not have our own stores. We have a very strong presence in India and internationally. We totally depend on MBO’s to sell our products. We use various modes of marketing and branding to highlight our products such as dealer board, in-shop branding, standees, gondolas, POP materials, outdoors, print and electronic media advertising, digital media promotions, etc to convey our message to the target audience. And with our revamped and consolidated brand structure, we are hoping to reach out to a larger target audience.

AR – While the textile industry bodies seem to be satisfied with the stimulus packages announced by FM Nirmala Sitharaman, what is your view on this?

VKG – Today, we are fighting a Global pandemic, one which is not only threatening the lives of the people but also having an impact on the economy. The lockdowns have brought the revenues and incomes of corporates and families to almost a halt.  The cash flow has become a major concern for both corporates and individuals. The Central Government had been announcing packages and measures to help the poor and business community to fight the current pandemic economic consequences. We welcome the much-needed move made by our Hon’ble Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi to give a major boost to the economy by announcing Aatmanirbhar Bharat. The Rs. 20 lakh crore package is equivalent to 10% of the GDP, ranking 6th on the global platform. The announcement by the Hon’ble FM has been focussed on increasing the liquidity in the system by supporting the Cottage Industry, MSME, NBFC, industries and middle-class people. This will act as a booster for much-required cash flow in the system.

However, this additional flow of funds in the system will add on to the interest burden to the businesses.  The business community is looking forward to interest subvention that would help them to ease their interest cost to the business. In the light of the new definition of MSME, the industries are also eagerly waiting for the extension of Government contribution to EPF without any cap on several workers or their salary slabs. The Salary and Interest contribute a major part of the total expenses of any business and the additional support in these areas would help the additional cost burden to the businesses and industries as they are having almost zero revenue.