Ravi Singhee, MD, Magnum Clothing
Experienced Director with a demonstrated history of working in the apparel and fashion industry.
Podcast
Overview
Ravi Singhee comes from a family which was one of the wealthiest families of their village about 5 generations ago. With time, unfortunately they lost everything and had to start from scratch. However, one thing they didn’t lose was their good reputation among peers. Ravi’s grandfather moved to Calcutta from Rajasthan to set up his business. Ravi’s father moved to London to set his business up there. Ravi inherited that business and came back to India to grow the business. Now, Ravi Singhee is the Managing Director at Magnum Clothing. He is a member of YPO and EO.
Discussion:
About Magnum Clothing
Ravi tells us that Magnum Clothing was started by his father 52 years ago. He then was a trader of clothes with minimal manufacturing. With time they changed their product mix to cater to the market. Now Magnum Clothing has over 3000 people working with them. Now they also manufacture their own products. Ravi adds that he believes in delivering value to the customers. Magnum Clothing does not sell the goods to the end consumer. They sell it to the retailer who further sells it to the consumers. Ravi says that retail is the integral part of their business as he helps them build the brand, but their focus is always the end consumer.
Learning in Ravi’s journey
Speaking of his ancestors, Ravi tells us that his ancestors were one of the wealthiest families of the village but they lost their money in business. They were left with nothing but a temple they inherited and a good reputation. Ravi’s grandfather went to Chennai with nothing in his hand. Due to the reputation they had, he could get some credit to start his business. Ravi says that from this incident, he has learnt that reputation takes generations to be built and it takes seconds to destroy it.
Setting up the first manufacturing facility in Chennai
Ravi tells us that while he was in Scotland, he bought a second hand manufacturing plant from another clothing company and brought that to India. He tells us that buying a second hand plant and shifting it to another country was cheaper than buying a new plant.
How technology has changed the textile business
Ravi starts his answer by saying that every business is about manpower, raw material and customer interface. He believes that the cost of technology and its implementation should not be more than your savings. The new age technology is making a change in every field of business and making it more efficient.
Staying fashionable in the market
Ravi believes that if you listen to your customers, your job gets easier. Magnum Clothing ended up re-engineering their supply chain whereas no one wants to invest the money in keeping raw material. They did it. With that they could deliver the customers what they wanted.
Textile business and Sustainability
Coming from a Marwari family, Ravi believes that sustainability is something he has been doing since childhood. He says that he did not have many choices and options of buying multiple things, so everything they had, they used to recycle. Sustainability is their way of life. Textiles in India have a whole value chain set up. Ravi believes that the textile industry got disgraced when the retailers chased prices and started buying longer leap periods.
The thought behind the ’55 year old interns’
Ravi proudly tells us that the most valuable asset he has in his business today is his 73 years old father who has no idea of the technology and resources they use, but the questions he asks Ravi about the business are very pertinent and thought provoking. So to bring in the values from the older generation which this generation has lost, he wanted to find the fastest server with the most apt thought process. To bring in that combination, he hired the 55 years old interns which successfully worked for Magnum Clothing.
Profile
Experienced Director with a demonstrated history of working in the apparel and fashion industry. Skilled in Trend Analysis, Textile Industry, Global Sourcing, Retail, and Strategic Planning. Strong professional with a B.Sc Economics focused in Economics from University College London, U. of London.
