Having established its presence in the men’s premium inner-wear category, Crusoe, the flagship brand of Coimbatore-based Jagannath Textile, is planning to venture into the women and children’s category by 2013. The company will retain the same brand name for its women and children’s collections but will adopt a different marketing strategy.

Abhishek Tibrewal, chief marketing officer of Crusoe said that once the brand is launched across the country, it will start working on its unisex categories. “Crusoe is present in most of the states, except the northern ones. But we’re confident of establishing a pan-India presence by March 2012,” he added. The company launched Crusoe in 2009.

According to Tibrewal, the company had decided to come into the market with men’s product as it felt that the market offered very limited options in the premium category. “One will find a wide range of options in the women’s segment, but the same is not true for the men. Either there are options available in the value for money category or in the super premium category with players like Tommy Hilfiger, Calvin Klein and United Colors of Benetton capturing the mega share of the market. The only major player in the premium category was Jockey,” he said.

Further, we realised that men are not so cautious about inner garments and hence we launched Crusoe with a particular theme in mind – Adventure, which we felt would help us market the product better, he added.

The inner-wear market in India is a Rs 11,000 crore category and is witnessing a 10-12 per cent growth year-on-year. Of this 40 per cent is men’s category, while the remaining comprises women and children products. “Crusoe commands a 2.5 per cent share in the premium men’s inner-wear category, which stands at Rs 600 crore,” Tibrewal said.

Though, Crusoe, makes a minimal contribution to the Jagannath Textile’s overall turnover at present, it is confident of playing a significant part in the company’s growth story. “By March 2016, we expect the brand to generate turnover of Rs 250 crore and this will be primarily due to the setting up standalone stores and venturing into the unisex category,” he added.