MAS in quest to make women love themselves & celebrate their bodies

• Following initial success in giant India, intimate apparel specialist’s first brand amanté looks to revolutionise lingerie market in Sri Lanka

By Nisthar Cassim

With a population of 1.2 billion, India is the world’s second largest market. The very opportunity that India offers also brings about scores of manufacturers and brands within and from outside. For a company to make India a testbed for a new product can evoke mixed reactions – one of foolishness or an act of boldness. To MAS Holdings, the latter can be applied for a multitude of reasons.

The launch of its own lingerie brand amanté five years ago in India and the success subsequently was not by an accident but fruition of a vision embedded in its corporate DNA over a decade ago. 

Until 2007 and even today, the family-controlled MAS Holdings has been one of the world’s popular suppliers of high quality lingerie to a host of internationally famous brands, including Victoria’s Secret.

MAS is South Asia’s largest intimate apparel exporter and manufacturer with 25 years experience in the industry. Brands with which the MAS Group works include the world famous Victoria’s Secret, Marks & Spencer, La Senza, GAP, Soma, DBA, H&M, Lululemon, Oysho, and Athleta. Separately the Group also produces range of lingerie under Triumph, a world famous lingerie brand.

The group produces about 750 million briefs and 50 million bras. With an annual turnover of over $ 800 million, MAS Holdings is South Asia’s largest intimate apparel manufacturer and the region’s most rapidly growing provider of active and performance wear.

“Launching our own lingerie brand started about 10 years ago,” recalls the more design-savvy of the Amalean brothers, Ajay, Group Director at MAS. “We realised that having manufactured lingerie to world class brands for over two decades, we are better positioned to try out a product under our own label,” he added.

This was, however, in spite of one of the top partners around 20 years ago, sensing MAS would end up as a retailer of lingerie, advising the Lankan firm to buy a brand rather than build one from scratch. “Whilst respecting the view, we however took the latter route with confidence five years ago,” emphasised Ajay.

Harnessing the Group’s 25 years of expertise and excellence in manufacturing, designing, and technology, as well as supply chain in the intimate lingerie business, amanté was launched with a vision to be the leading premium brand in the Asian region, promising elegance, comfort and value to the modern Asian woman. The venture also benefits from MAS’ design offices in New York, London and Hong Kong.

“We decided it will be good to make India our test market. If we succeeded in India, then we could be confident of tapping the potential in other Asian markets,” Ajay recalled.

Data for the organised retail market for lingerie in India is not available as in the case of Sri Lanka. World famous lingerie brand Triumph is the dominant player in the organised retail trade, in addition to Marks and Spencer and a few other domestic Indian brands.

Having wanted to launch its own intimate apparel brand, the search for the name was executed internally. Out of hundreds of suggestions, the word ‘amanté’ originating from Spanish meaning lover was chosen.

“By nature we are passionate and believe in ourselves, but we are cautious in everything we do. The same philosophy was used in launching amanté in India,” said Ajay.  “As a test bed we kicked off in the cosmopolitan South Indian city – Bangalore – and expanded to Chennai, Hyderabad, and later to North Indian cities in New Delhi and Greater Delhi area and to the West, Mumbai and Pune. This was done over a period of several years,” he added.

The learning curve in India was enriching for MAS. For starters, to get it right, MAS measured a sample of 1,500 Indian women to get an idea of the standard size and fits rather than going by Western or Asian makes. Additional research to better understand the market was deployed as well. In the initial years a large number styles were tried and tested.

Out of learning, today two collections (Autumn/Winter and Spring) are launched per year, whilst a catalogue comprising three ranges – Glamour, Confidence, and Comfort – are available throughout the year. “As we learnt and understood the market, we tweaked our offering,” Ajay pointed out.

“When we entered India and as in the case of most South Asian nations, intimate lingerie as a category hadn’t evolved. The market in general has a legacy of domination by cheap undergarments. Most women spent least on their innerwear. Within the age segment of 30-45, the mindset for undergarments is one of privacy or secretive. However, the 16-30 age groups have begun to be different trying out new things and are more comfortable in talking about their innerwear or making them seen,” opined Ajay.

“The value proposition amanté gave Indian women in the target markets was ‘love yourself’ with elegance and fashion, wearing fit and comfortable lingerie.  The campaign targeted smart, intelligent, educated, elegant, fashionable, and confident women.

True to its brand promise, amanté savoured success soon. In March 2010, amanté was feted for innovation by the Indian consumer in the largest independent survey carried out. ‘Product of the Year’ is the global consumer recognition standard in retail products, and amanté won in the lingerie category for its coordinated set product. This was the first time a lingerie product was voted as ‘Product of the Year,’ and is a clear indication of amanté’s dominance in the Indian consumer market.

Five years on in India, Ajay says the intimate lingerie market is evolving there, whereas in the West it is a major category.

As a new brand it has enjoyed 50% growth in sales per year and this trend will continue, according to Ajay, with amanté in India likely to make its first year of profit in 2013, having been breaking even in recent years.

In India, the amanté brand was promoted in a cost efficient manner via consumer promotions, using online channels; hence there wasn’t a big investment in marketing. The brand was originally available in select cities and to invest in a pan-India basis, one has to have economies of scale. Today amanté is currently sold in over 400 retail outlets across India.

“We are not looking at large numbers in terms of presence, rather maximising sales from existing outlets in India,” he added.

MAS’ success in the neighbouring giant has been facilitated by the Free Trade Agreement between India and Sri Lanka. The product enjoys preferential access to India and played a key part in enhancing Sri Lanka’s exports and reducing the trade imbalance with India.

Having succeeded in India, and wanting to give back the benefits of a world class product to its home base, MAS recently launched amanté in Sri Lanka.

“In our entry in Sri Lanka, we are following the same model with a slight modification. Our main thrust will be a brand owner and not a retailer of intimate lingerie. We have partnered with several stores at present and the base will be expanded to 50 by end next year. In Sri Lanka, our home base, we are looking at only having a flagship store offering a total lifestyle experience with several partners with amanté providing the intimate wear and sleepwear. A men’s range will be launched out as well,” revealed Ajay.

“We are bullish about India and are there for the long haul. When India’s intimate lingerie market booms, we will be ready to grow from it. We are also equally bullish about Sri Lanka and the evolving branded lingerie market. We believe the lingerie market will graduate from its present price sensitive nature to one of quality, fashion, and comfort,” opined Ajay.

Noting that barriers to entry in the intimate lingerie market are high given the industry dynamics, he is of the view that the fledging amanté brand will grow in size and contribute to the bottom line of MAS in the future. Ajay’s guess is about 25% of MAS’s profits in 10 years’ time.

A full-time CEO will be taken on board to steer MAS Brands, which is spearheading amanté from January 2013. “We see opportunities for expansion of the amanté brand in Southeast Asia and the Middle East over the medium term,” Ajay added.

MAS Brands is the Strategic Business Unit of MAS Investments, focused on the launch and subsequent marketing of amanté. Its vision and drive to be the category leader within the premium lingerie segment enables it to understand the evolving needs of the expressive, confident and contemporary Sri Lankan woman. “We believe that fine lingerie is the privilege of every woman, and therefore provide tailor-made intimate apparel to fit her unique contours, style, and taste,” says Ajay.

When Ajay was asked how complex or challenging it is for a Group to be manufacturing intimate lingerie to world-renowned brands such as Victoria’s Secret and Triumph and at the same time produce and market one’s own brand, he responded saying: “MAS believes in doing the right thing and places topmost priority on maintaining confidentiality, honesty, trust, integrity, and transparency. Internally the credo is to shut down the amanté plant rather than compromise confidentiality of designs or new products of other brands or attempt to copy.”

Noting that MAS has the highest respect for Triumph given the fact that the brand is 100 years old, Ajay said: “When we entered India, where Triumph has a great presence, we said ‘let’s build the market together’. India’s middle income market is gigantic and there is ample room for quality brands to grow. There is respect for each other.”