Baggit free essay sample

Baggit is a leading Indian premium brand of ‘Bags accessories’ for women that is designed and manufactured in India. Baggit Evolution. †¢ was born in 1990 and is based in Mumbai †¢ First sold from Inxs, Kemps Corner, Mumbai †¢ Spread like wild fire across trade channels in Mumbai and Delhi †¢ Distributed from Large Format Retail from 2000 †¢ First exclusive outlet in Atria mall, Worli, Mumbai †¢ Now retailed across country in all sales channels Baggit Offering. †¢ Handbags †¢ Wallets †¢ Mobile Pouches †¢ Belts †¢ Caps †¢ Scarves †¢ Footwear Baggit Core Values. †¢ To provide the Indian consumer with the latest international designs in bags and accessories †¢ Design Trendy and smart fashion †¢ Styling †¢ Value-add †¢ Choice of colours †¢ Thoughtfully designed †¢ To provide a variety of styles to cater to the tastes of a varied audience †¢ To ensure that the consumer gets the best quality products †¢ Quality is controlled inhouse by a group of talented designers †¢ Every product passes critical design acceptance test †¢ 100% quality inspection of imported CC fabrics, imported trims Achievements. Ranked in top 3 brands in the category in Sales, turnover and MPF in Lifestyle consistently over 4 years †¢ Ranked in top 3 brands in the category in Sales, turnover and MPF in Shoppers’ Stop consistently over 4 years †¢ Grown to 11 exclusive outlets in a span of 2 years †¢ Felicitated with the ‘Proggy Award’ ‘manufacturing non-leather products’ for the Company of the Year by PETA 2007 Face behind Baggit. Ms. Nina Lekhi. †¢ Voted as one of the 50 most powerful business women of India by business today (October 2007) †¢ First generation entrepreneur Started from scratch, built a rock solid business †¢ Strong social and spiritual values Advocate of SSY [Siddha Samadhi Yoga], Meditation practice followed in Manufacturing, Aims to create Rural Employment Going Forward. Brand Vision †¢ To be the most preferred brand of women’s bags in India †¢ To open overseas EBO’s †¢ To keep pioneering Fashi on at the very core An interview with the face behind Baggit Nina Lekhi Baggit manufactures and retails bags that cater to a genre of women who deem bags an integral part of their singular style statement and whose designs are both utilitarian and hedonistic. Franchise India Media (FIM) : What was your prior occupation? Nina Lekhi (NL) : Just before I started Baggit, I had been a student. FIM : Tell us about Baggit and its product offerings. NL : Baggit mainly manufactures and retails bags that cater to a genre of women who deem bags an integral part of their singular style statement. The designs are both utilitarian and hedonistic. Our bags are a blend of comfort and style. Other products that we deal in are Handbags Wallets, Mobile Pouches, Belts, Caps, Scarves and Footwear. FIM : What is you start-up story behind Baggit? NL : I was told by my teachers to stay away from classes in college until I cleared my first term exams. I took it as a challenge and decided to prove myself. I decided to become a designer. Then I did part-time courses in textile designing, weaving and colour dyeing. I also participated in designing competitions and soon won a couple of art awards and providing regular consignments for couturier Mike Kripalani. It was then I started Baggit. FIM : How did you finance your start-up operations and how long did it take for the company to become self-sustainable? NL : I borrowed my initial funding of Rs 7000 from my mother. FIM : How was the experience of building a team? NL : Since I did not have enough money I started by hiring freshers for designing and neighborhood tailors for the stitching of bags. I managed everything and used my house for warehousing. FIM : What are the challenges that you have faced in your entrepreneurial journey so far and how have you dealt with them? NL : Money is always a constraint for new and small companies. We also have to convince our family of our endeavours. My father was a little worried as the business of bags entailed traveling to unheard places in search of raw materials, but my mother was very supportive. FIM : What is your growth plan for the coming 3 three years? NL : Our expansion plans also include concern for rural areas and environment. â€Å"We plan to have a composite unit in rural areas. This will generate employment and enable villagers to live in cleaner and greener spaces. The effort will also help us keep costs and prices down and thereby reaching out to more consumers in India,† adds Lekhi. A TOI article -what are baggit bags all about? ina lekhi, lead-ing accessory designer and the woman behind the label smiles. baggit bags are me, because every bag that i design is a part of me. its really a funny story, because it was when a friend and myself were crooning the popular michael jackson hit, beat it, in the changing room of a swimming pool, that together we coined the name, baggit. the story starts when nina lo st a year in college and found her-self with plenty of time on her hands and the desire to prove her mettle. she took part-time cours-es in textile designing, weaving and colour dyeing. oon she won herself a couple of art awards and providing regular consign-ments for coutu-rier mike kripalani. nina does concede though, that never did she imagine that her nonchalant creative pursuits at sophia polytechnic would become a buzzing business worth over 3 crore. a look at the baggit line and one realises that it caters to a genre of women who deem bags an integral part of their singular style state-ment. the designs are both utilitarian and hedonistic. even though we follow trends, our bags are a blend of comfort and style, says nina. ooking beyond the humdrum persistence of black leather, baggit lets ornamentation and colour invigorate fashion. its latest line, which includes stark achromatic zebra print baguettes in velvet, matched with a metal twine handle and square bags with a copiou s dash of sequins, beads, tassels or embroidery, reek of sheer sophistication. the palette is pastel with lavender, mint or beige in bigger nylon bags for the shopping or college bags but the hues get brighter and include vibrant pinks, cherry and blues for the more dapper styles. here are additional shades which tend towards abstraction like stone, ice and smoke, but are as much a part of the fashion scene as the faux skin bags, denim is hot too, says nina. and, frankly, the choice is wide enough, so what you select should match your per-sonality and mood. one also sees an array of shaded can-vas prints, crochet, brushed drill, twill, jute, viscose, velvet, satin silks and poly urethane, which, explains rajesh mehta, who is closely associated with baggit and its materi-al supply, tells us is imported and eco-friendly. aggits upmarket clientele thrives on its daily-use collection which includes work bags, gym gear and hip wallets. and, the tear drop-shaped tradi-tional drawstring p otlis or the oblong bags laced with an indian border with a suspended cell phone pocket, can spice up an evening ensemble for that occasional fusion chic. baggit retails at selected outlets including the shoppers stop chain, the crossroads-piramyd store, and, of course, their own bag boutique, inxs. prices range from rs 375 to rs 775 for bags and rs 225 to rs 375 for wallets. Few more articles†¦ The idea isn’t born of a brief flash of lightning, but one that is conceptualised, mulled over, and thrashed out. Its pursuit is fraught with risks, where women battle self-doubt and dig into their piggy banks to negotiate a rocky path that takes them from the drawing board to companies worth crores. There are no must-do manuals or how-to guides. Instead, they rely on instinct, patience, experience and persistence. These four women took a plunge into the unknown, some alone, others with friends or their spouse. LEAP OF FAITH Like 41-year-old Mumbai-based bag designer Nina Lekhi, whose company, Baggit, was born from her need to prove to her peers that she wasn’t a failure. After flunking her first year at Mumbai’s Sophia Polytechnic where she was studying art, Lekhi spent a year at home. It was the lowest point in her life. But the sense of worthlessness didn’t pull her down. Instead, Lekhi found herself taking up a part-time course in screen-printing and interior design and wandering through the markets of Mumbai in search of fabric and canvas. It was during this time that Lekhi decided it would be â€Å"fun† to make bags. She did the screen prints herself and hired a tailor to sew the bags. Gradually, that year, Lekhi found herself creating 50 bags a week and soon hired another tailor to help her out. Baggit, the company, was created in 1983 and now has three stores in Mumbai with two more in the offing. Unlike Lekhi, †¦.. No Baggage, Just Bags Nina Lekhi, 42, Managing Director, Baggit The genesis: Failure, quite literally, became the starting point for Lekhi’s venture. After flunking her first-year college exams, she decided to familiarise herself with interior design and screen printing. The latter gave her an opportunity to design handbags, made from canvas sourced from the local wholesale market. â€Å"I also wanted to prove something to my teacher at Sophia Polytechnic, where I was studying, who felt I would come to no good,† Lekhi quips. Nina Lekhi And while she began well over 20 years ago, it was, as she puts it, just a hobby till about four years back when she realised the potential of her business—after attending a professional insight programme—and took it seriously. Company she keeps: As the name suggests, Baggit is into bags, having sold over a million of them since inception. The product portfolio also includes belts, laptop cases, caps and scarves; Lekhi recently also ventured into men’s and children’s accessories as also footwear. Numbers of note: She started with just Rs 7,000, and raked in Rs 5 lakh in the first year of operations in 1985-86. Her last reported turnover —for 2006-07—stood at Rs 7 crore and she expects to close the current fiscal with Rs 15 crore. Starting off with one tailor, she today employs 50 full-time staff and another 450 job-workers in her factory. XY factor: None at all. Wo(e)man moment: None really, she states. A video interview http://www. youtube. com/watch? v=HKJH1-FYTUM | | |