The brand is full of energy with an innovative business model. To know more, we connected with Gagan Jain, Brand Head, Duke who is working on a mission to make Duke an international brand and make India proud.

How different are you when it comes to your competition in the like to like category?

Duke provides quality garments with contemporary styling at an affordable price range. Our products are as creatively designed as compared to any international brand. We can be termed as an ‘Indian Multi-National Brand.’  

Who is your customer and does he love the brand with its aspiration value? 

We have always worked very closely in understanding our consumers’ fashion needs. You can correctly say that Duke has always been an aspirational brand to the consumers.  They look upon us for our new collections, so that they can get something new in their wardrobe with a good style and quality.

Fashion and Innovation go hand in hand. What’s your definition and investments?

For Duke, innovation is in its DNA. We are always ideating on new fashion trends and how relevantly can we present this to our consumers. Duke in every new season showcases latest collections for men, women, kids, footwear and accessories.

On the retail front too, we are continuously seeking and adapting to new innovations in providing better marketing strategy based on customers’ desires. Also, with a boom in the digital internet space, we are always geared to improve our offerings through e-commerce.

What’s your brand score on sustainability terms?

Sustainable fashion has become an important need and simply defined as something which is ethically made and is environment friendly. It is very relevant to think for our future generation, while working on our business strategy.

The brand has always been putting effort to move on the path of sustainable fashion by using environment-friendly processes like, effluent treatment plants (ETP) with zero discharge of harmful chemicals into the water. ETP is a nature-friendly process and designed to solve waste water-related issues in industries. Textile industries use a large amount of water from the river in their processes and, as a result, produce a large volume of waste water that needs treatment before discharge into the environment.

Duke believes that working for nature is also important. Our brand uses eco-friendly dyeing for garments and yarns with green dyes and a nature-friendly process, making the fabric anti-bacterial, anti-inflammatory and anti-allergic.

Share your initiatives on the technology front both at the manufacturing and retail level?

When we talk about technology, we use the latest TECH software. Along with this, we are digitally available and follow the latest technology for our online store to give ease to our consumers. Our tech team is always working to provide our customers with an easy and smooth interface on the portal. Talking about manufacturing, Duke uses fully tech-operated machines for its fast and quality production.

What are the products that define Duke’s complete product portfolio? Share your expansion plans?

Our brand offers a full range of clothing for men, women and kids. In addition, it has made deep inroads into the thermal, innerwear, footwear and accessories markets as well. But when we talk about bestsellers; t-shirts and winter wear are the heroes. Duke has pioneered the t-shirt culture in India and we’ve been India’s No.1 t-shirt brand as well.

Duke offers their consumers the best price range in every category with affordable rates. The average MRP of t-shirts is Rs 850-1300, sweatshirts Rs 999-2000, jackets Rs 1999-4999 and sweaters Rs 999-2999, etc.

Duke is planning the expansion of its textile and woven fabric garments for its distribution network. Expansion is planned for its footwear category and techno garments in retail and development of leisure wear.

Tell us about the new Spring Summer collection?

Duke Spring-Summer-23 collection has an extensive array of fabrics, colours, graphics and expression, thus creating a conquering silhouette set, marking an adventure to a pure sartorial exploration. The teens, the youth, the wiser and the trendier whosoever wants to go minimalistic in their fashion statement, can have their wardrobes adorned with our latest ensemble. From classic to fashion colours, smart to elegant styling, simple to significant modes and this value-for-money range redefines you to escapade the delightful attitude as you dress in Duke. 

Share details on your retail spread across the country and the formats you are available? 

The brand has an all India presence. Our 50 percent of sales contribution come from North and East India, 30 percent from South India and 20 percent from West India retail spread.

We are strong brand available in all regional markets and it has played a big role for us in our development in the last 50 years. We plan according to the regional market's tastes, needs, areas, climate conditions and their requirements. Regional markets give value to our business so it's important to understand the needs and work according to it.

We are currently present in 400 exclusive brand outlets (EBO), 5000 multi brand outlets (MBO), 100 shop-in-shop (SIS) and 700 large format stores (LFS) across the country. 

How well have you scored online? How has this changed the business for you?

We are one of the leading brands that have made its online presence in a short span of time. We are present online through our website www.dukeindia.com which enables a customer to shop without coming to our store. Apart from this, our products are also present through e-business marketplaces like Amazon, Flipkart, Ajio, Myntra etc.

What are your future retail expansion plans?

We are a brand which believes in growth and we are planning to open 100 more stores all across India.

What’s your current financials and what are you expecting in the next 2-3 years?   

Duke’s current turnover is approximately around 450 crore and we are expecting to achieve 800 crore in the next 2 to 3 years.