In the financial hub of eastern India, Kolkata, a humble production capacity of 20 shirts a day was started in 1993. Today this company totes up revenues to the tune of over $30 million.
Turtle’s journey began in Kolkata in the year 1993 with a humble production capacity of 20 shirts a day. Today, the brand is a powerhouse of manufacturing and retail, offering a range of apparels and accessories passionately created by the talented in-house design team. Their subtle design sensibilities and unique sense of global trends has elevated the fashion landscape of eastern India.
Right from textile designing to the final tag packaging, they conceptualise the creatives in house. The uniqueness of colour plays and patterns combined with competitive pricing catapults their products ahead of others. Every season they share a story with the consumers via their products.
Turtle source its fabric from all over India. Like, knitwear and winter products they source from Ludhiana and Tirupur, down south. For woven, they work with major mills across India, based on their product requirement. Some of the fancy fabrics are even merchandised from China. They do limited accessories, majorly sourced from Delhi and Mumbai. Since long, Turtle has been actively manufacturing and promoting hand-made fabric. The brand has clusters of villages that make fabric from the yarn level. No power looms are involved.
There is a big change in the manner Turtle sources or the goods that are sourced since the pandemic. Prior to pandemic, there was a heavy tilt towards China for some premium fabrics. Post pandemic, the home-grown brands have been on their preference list and also because, the quality offered is almost at par to the orient counterpart. Trims, still majorly sourced from China because the quality, finishing and turnaround time is still unmatched in India. And, post pandemic, they added more vendors in their consideration as that definitely spreads the risk and gives more variety and cost wise places on a competitive edge.
According to founder Sanjay Jhunjhunwalla, the key driver to success is innovation. So, definitely how relevant is the R&D for the party in front. Secondly, the flexibility. In the world of product design & manufacturing, unexpected challenges may arise so an expertise insight and hand holding are vital for the deliverance.
The Turtle basket of brands is entirely into menswear and accessories. They have their own website, along with presence on Myntra, Amazon and Ajio. They have about 138 stores. Lucknow, Allahabad, BBSR, Cuttack, Bokaro, Patna, Karimnagar, Tirupati, Aurangabad, Pune, Imphal, Jorhat, Dibrugarh, Silchar, Siliguri, Guwahati, Barasat, Madhyamgram, Coochbehar are their major markets. The towns and cities they have targeted for the next one year are Patna – Kankarbagh, Boring Road; Hyderabad, Chennai, Pune, Vizag. Their flagship stores are at Janpath in BBSR, Sodepur, Madhyamgram & Barasat in WB, Aurangabad in Maharashtra.
Although 50 per cent of their business was affected, they did not layoff any staff during the first wave of the pandemic. Covid-19 has changed their perspective. Differential thinking is the way forward. Adapting to the new norms of comfort clothing, they have added a product line of transitional wear in their product basket, they launched multiple categories like the active life + daily essentials. They diversified as a fashion brand. And not to miss the Ceremonial trend. Basis this, they have entered new markets and pitching in to a wider consumer base. They are shaping up digital as it is something they took a serious note of.
Revenues before pandemic were going uphill. But post, lull of over a year, but recently the momentum in the market is phenomenon. With almost unorganized players wiped out due to the pandemic, the gap is huge and they are aggressively expanding via SIS and their exclusive outlets.
This year Turtle is celebrating their 30 years of successful journey. Turtle’s 30 year heritage is firmly rooted in craftsmanship that fuses craft of the fine tailoring with thoughtful design creating timeless pieces for the modern man’s wardrobe. It is a perennial quest for quality that stitches together a lifestyle approach to men’s modern style. They believe in the axiom that fashion changes but quality and style endures.
