Pepe Jeans was one of the earliest apparel companies to enter India way back in 1989. The SpainP headquartered brand has changed its business model in India many times from a distribution to a completely owned global subsidiary. Manish Kapoor, Managing Director of Pepe Jeans in India, talks about the company's three-decade journey and the digital transformation of its stores, manufacturing process and the whole supply chain. Edited excerpts:
Pepe had entered India a few years ahead of the famous 1991 economic reforms and you have grown to be one of the biggest denim sellers in India. Could you tell us about your journey?
If we look at Pepe Jeans journey in India, we effectively say that we are running our fourth life. We entered India in 1989 and we were a popular European brand. We came into the country and made the same mistakes that a lot of foreign brands make while launching a European product in India like having European pricing that didn't work.
In 1992, a gentleman called Chetan Shah, who was an employee of Pepe said that we have to do this differently in India and it needs a different formula. We took up a license for Pepe in India and started doing product and positioning that was right for India. If you look at it, American brands brought functionality to fashion while European brands brought fashion to denim. And that's what clicked for Pepe. We became a very, very prominent player in the whole denim fashion space.
Again, there was a change of strategy for Pepe in India in 201112, when we said that while we are successful, our positioning between what we are in Europe and India is different. We need to change that and get closer to what we stand for the consumer as a brand globally. So, we took up 100 percent equity in the Indian business and started our third innings from there till 2018.
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