Exclusive | Innovation & craftsmanship: Hidesign's Dilip Kapur

From its artisan roots of a two man workshop to a company of 3000 spread all over the world, Hidesign has come this far by staying focused on innovation,based on its strong heritage of craftsmanship. Hidesign stands out for the sensuous naturalness of its high quality leather and the smooth soft glow of its solid brass fittings in its leather goods.
Hidesign is a recognised leader in the research of the ecological use of vegetable tanned leathers for its leather goods. Learning from the centuries old skills of tanning with natural seeds and barks, Hidesign has created fashionable leathers that age exceptionally well. The heritage of fine hand craftsmanship is visible in the details that make Hidesign products exclusive and stand out.

Recently Dilip Kapur, President, Hidesign took Adgully through the journey of the brand and also highlighted its evolution over the years.
Talking about the market size and the growth percentage, Kapur said, “The bag market is estimated at over Rs 2000 crores. The leather goods organised industry is around Rs 300-400 crores and growing at 15-20 per cent a year.” According to him a clear focusand strategy has been on building a credible brand that is viewed as being innovative, qualitative and exclusive.

Replying to a query on competition and how Hidesign stay ahead of the curve, Kapur said, “Staying focused on your brand, and working hard to solve the problems of retail. We are all still learning retail in India and being willing to take a long term view is important. Finally, the customer does realise our product is a great value. We are vertically integrated, and it is not just a Chinese synthetic import that everyone else can also import.”

Hidesign’s customers are upwardly mobile career driven men and women. They tend to be well educated, well travelled and most importantly very cosmopolitan.Says Kapur, “In terms of price, it is affordable luxury so it is always an aspirational product. The product quality is a key differentiator since we control it from tanning to retail. Everything from the quality of our leather to our brass buckles, to having a factory that has the most experienced and committed craftspeople in India.”

In terms of delivery times the product is sold off the rack so the delivery issues are faced by us internally. He says, “But yes this continues to be an important issue and we still have to resolve the issue of shortening the production time table and in terms of technology; the retail back end is increasingly a key area of focus. We have been learning this from our partners Louis Vuitton and our friends at the larger stores such as Shoppers Stop.”

Speaking about the distribution part, he said, “That is only through our own stores and through the best organised retail large stores. We do not distribute to the unorganised sector as we cannot control the service, the display and the quality of ambience.”

In terms of marketing and promotional strategy, he said, “Every six months, we stay in tune with the lifestyle changes of our customers. Print media still continues to be around 50 per cent of our budget, with PR, outdoors, social media becoming increasingly important.”

Kapur feels that digital marketing as such is still something we are learning but social media through Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest are increasingly important. “We have one of the largest and most activeFacebook communities and we spend a lot of time thinking and interacting on it,” he added.

Commenting on the business this year, Kapur says,“This year has been surprisingly ok for us inspite of the collapse of the international market. We have grown in our traditional strong markets of UK, Russia and USA.” Vikas Kapur has just moved to the United States to strengthen our international presence, he added. In terms of new product launches, he told us that sunglasses, shoes, scarves are on the way.

The history of Hidesign has been defined by the rebellion against uniformity and synthetic flatness of the mass market. Starting in 1978, it has been driven by the passion of a multicultural group of a design oriented team. From small alternative shops in San Francisco and London, it moved to the first adventurous department stores in the early 1990s in London, California and Australia.

From the first exclusive boutique in 1998, Hidesign has grown to 62 exclusive stores and a distribution network in 23 countries that has placed its product in over 2000 stores. Hidesign’s rapid growth in the fastest growing economies of the world in Asia, Africa and Russia has positioned it for rapid growth in the future.