By V. Sivaji
Editor and co-founder
A textile giant which had its humble beginnings in Bishop Street here in 1940 in George Town, Penang went on to expand in Kuala Lumpur and make its mark on the international stage.
The Binwani Group is now run by their second generation of leaders who have been groomed by their late father, Rupchand, who also opened his business in Indonesia in 1925 and Singapore later.
Although the senior Binwani passed away in 1948, his wife Devi took on the responsibility of managing the business until the children were big enough to run the family business.
Now, the Binwani’s Group is managed by his son Chandru and his grandsons, namely Vijay who was mentored and groomed by their father from a young age.
Vijay came into the family business after graduating from the University of Oregon in 1994 and has since been working to take the business to greater heights.
” Among the initial challenges I had to face initially were the way the traditional business was run. I started to establish the Customer Database system to track and manage our customer relationship management (CRM) processes and plan marketing promotions more effectively in the first three months I came in.
“To add value to the business and meet the high expectations, we also ensured personalised service and quality control,” said Vijay adding that since we live in a digital world now the designing process has changed drastically.
He added that today we can command our suppliers from Italy to China to make design adaptations and colour adaptations digitally to suit our market taste.
“The minimum order quantities have also reduced to this digital printing process and that has enabled us to provide exclusive designs to our clients.
“So much so we can now custom print a piece of fabric just for one individual client. This enables us to have a highly personalised approach to our business,” said Vijay.
In line with this, he established a new Men’s Fashion Label by the name of LUSTRO in 2008.
The first retail outlet was established in Jakarta, Indonesia before opening their doors in Kuala Lumpur in 2010.
“In 2016 we tied up with one of Brazil’s largest fashion retail brand called Dudalina and opened the first retail outlet in Kuala Lumpur and Asia.
“Today we have two stores and plan to open 4 more in 2019,” he said when met by Hyperlocal recently.
He also disclosed that for 2019, for BInwani’s they have a collection of fabrics already prepared for the new year and they are currently being produced out of Italy and will be in stores in January.
“As for our ready to wear apparel brand we rollout LUSTRO’s next collection just before Christmas and the next one in February just in time for Spring 2019.
“Next year we will also introduce a new kind of shirt into Malaysia market with
“We also want to focus on our e-commerce portal (www.binwani.com) bringing you multi brands of apparels, fabrics, accessories and custom tailored options for men all in one site.
“The site is live now with several brands and accessories available. In 2019 we look forward to introducing several garment care products like anti-wrinkle sprays, anti odour sprays, delicate wash for Silk fabrics and apparels made from silk fabrics,” added Vijay.
On a personal note, although the business commitments require him to travel all over the world, Vijay tires to be in Kuala Lumpur on weekends so that he can spend time with the family and friends.
“I usually take my son for his soccer practice or watch the EPL with him. We are both football enthusiast and love Manchester United.
“My wife and I are into fitness so we love going for hikes and runs when we can,” he shared.