IDEAS BY GUL AHMED

By
SYED FAIZYAB ALI ZAIDI (30677)
SAQIB KALWER

SUBMITTED TO: PROF. DR. MAK CHISHTY

A report submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements

For the Channel Management subject
At the Iqra University,
Main campus, Karachi

Karachi, Pakistan
March, 2016

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

S.no.

Description

Page no.

LIST OF TABLES

Market Review

3
4

CHANNEL STRUCTURE and Logistics Channels

SWOT
.

4
6

Company performance

Sales Channel performance

Product Strategy and Placement Channels

Marketing Channels .

10

Value Chain

11

10

Supply chain of Gul Ahmed ..

12

11

Distribution channel

13

12

Supply Chain in Textile Industry .

15

..

........

..

. ...

Market Review:
Market Trends & Opportunities

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The industry that we have chosen is basically retail industry of Pakistan. In the recent year we have
experienced a noticeable growth in this sector. From little shops to departmental stores the trend has changed
to malls, megamalls, arcades and so on. Almost all the world class brands have realized the market potential in
Pakistan and opened up their retail outlets here.
Not only that, numerous local brands have sprung up and they are doing exceptionally well. The
unprecedented growth of this industry is owed to the awareness that has been spread by the globalization.
People have become more fashion savvy and brand conscious. The growth is so tremendous that people have
started to consider it as a status symbol. There are certain stores that are considered to be prestigious and
expensive and people take a lot of pride in making it public that they shop from a specific store, which is a
part of an international or a local brand. Albeit, we are suffering an economic crunch, but this industry is still
blooming and more international chain have opened up their stores. A recent example is of metro store. This is
maybe because the disposable income of the people of Pakistan lets them afford such a life style, as we have a
wide middle and upper middle class and the status awareness is increasing by the day. Now taking into
consideration the latest trends of one shop stop home concept, where buyers can purchase all the household
items from clothes to toiletries, decorations, apparels, furniture, beddings etc. at a single store. In the past few
years some major brands have launched stores of this sort locally and have also expanded it internationally.
These include Chen One of Chenab Group, Breeze of Sefam Pvt. Ltd and Ideas owned by Gul Ahmed. For the
purpose of this project the brand under consideration is Ideas. The project provides a detailed review and
analysis of the chosen company along with the competitors.

CHANNEL STRUCTURE
GUL AHMED
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Gul Ahmeds logistics channels include:

Their third party transportation.
Inventory management by ERP system.
Warehouse management of Chain and Korean Fabric.
Handling of Semi finish and Finish product material.
Distribution to its own outlets.

COMPETITOR ANALYSIS:
Chen One

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Chen One is one of the 3 projects launched by Chenab Group. Chenab Group started its retail chain of fashion
stores under the brand name of Chen One, with the concept of a family mega store dealing in home textile,
fashion garments, furniture and other accessories. Starting from Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan, their
outlets spread to other cities. Chen One is a subsidiary of Chenab Group of industries. It has been in operation
since its inception in 1997. The name Chen One is an integration of two words; Chen comes from Chenab, its
parent company, and one comes from its number one undisputed position. Chen One has eight outlets in
Pakistan and after their success at the spring exhibition in the Middle East they set up five stores in the region.
All Chen One stores are located in exclusive places in Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Peshawar,
Faisalabad and Rahim Yar Khan and its outlets can now be found in the best locations of Dubai, Ajman, Abu
Dhabi, Makkah, Sharjah and Bahrain. The catch phrase used by Chen One for marketing purposes i.e.
changing lifestyles fits very well with the innovative approach of its managers. Today Chen One is holds a
unique position in the market in the sense that we dont get to see too many stores offering a variety of
products under one roof and that too with a strong brand name and image. Chen One is the leaders in home
linen, garments and furnishing fabric market. Looking at the increasing market demand and the good quality
that Chenab was producing they decided to start their own brand, this was the only source of getting
themselves recognize in Pakistan. Else for recognition they also wanted to establish a brand that could carter
to the needs and demand of the local consumers, customers who seek good quality.

BAREEZE:
Bareeze is a sister concern of Sarena industries and owned by Sefam Pvt ltd. The firm is in business since late
1980, s. product range includes; crisp cottons, luxurious silks, sheer organza, chic chiffons, textile embroidery.
Bareeze brand and stores:

IDEAS - SWOT
STRENGTHS:

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Strong brand name that it carries as its parent brand

People across the country trust the brand Gul Ahmed for it quality, novelty and eminence. Especially in the
clothing line their quality is considered to be superior to their competitors.
Positive Impact of its personal wear on home products and gifts
Offering personalization on some of their products i.e. order taking not many competitors on the basis of one
shop stop capitalizing on the increasing awareness of diversion between income and economic classes and
recognizing shopping from good branded stores and malls has become a status symbol.
WEAKNESS:
There is not complete exclusive distribution for Ideas
Marketing not rigorously
OPPORTUNITIES:
One of the major opportunities that await Ideas is the fact that they can expand their business greatly. This
expansion can be both: Locally and Internationally
Local expansion in the unexplored cities of Pakistan
Internationally there is a huge potential for them to setup their stores
Another diversification that holds a lot of opportunity is to invest and venture into cosmetics market
THREATS:
Political Instability
Rising production costs
Competitors
Here again, we find ideas to be following Chen one closely but still, it is behind. Since the parent brand is so
strong, therefore the brand had maintained a good word of mouth, however sometimes people do complain
that as the products are not exclusive, the prices shouldnt be. Here we are particularly referring to the G
women and Men collection, which are available at retail outlets at the same price. This problem could be
overcome, if the company keeps some very exclusive prints, with premium prices, only at the Ideas outlet and
nowhere else.
Company performance

Gul Ahmed

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Gul Ahmed Textile Mills is one of the biggest names in the Pakistan textile industry. It is leading exporter of
home textiles. It also manufactures lawn fabric for the domestic market. The Gul Ahmed Group began trading
in textiles in the early 1900s.In 1953, the group decided to enter the field of manufacturing under the name
Gul Ahmed Textile Mills Limited, and was incorporated as a privately limited company in1972.
Super brands Ltd. is an independent organization that promotes the discipline of branding by paying tribute to
exceptional brands throughout the world, and it chose Gul Ahmed as a Super brand from the top 100 brand
names from all business sectors in Pakistan, based on its exceptional performance, quality products, good
governance, and over 5 decades of excellence in the field of textiles.
Thank You customers! Considering the growing trend towards the retail industry in Pakistan; Gul Ahmed
launched a retail outlet by the name of IDEAS in 2003. Ideas offers a range of home textiles and furnishings
for the bedroom, kitchen and bathroom, as well as men's and women's apparel. It also provides in-house
embroidery and tailor-made services. Ideas strives to be an international brand that cares for its customers and
fulfills their home and personal needs. Their aim is to provide a distinctive cozy shopping environment with
attractive dcor, a consistent availability of high quality products and new product innovations
.Gul Ahmed is an expensive and stylish brand which is always trying to keep up with the forever evolving
fashion trends. In the companys own words, Gul Ahmed is fashion. Apart from Ideas, Gul Ahmed has even
a complete online shopping store which can be easily accessed and stuff can be easily bought. What
differentiates Gul Ahmed from its competitors is the focus on customers. It caters a lot to its customers and
looks after their needs and convenience which has earned it a very a loyal customer base.
Gul Ahmed following customers needs that is marketing orientation:

Sales Channel performance-IDEAS

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Channel marketing proves to be a fit if the process better responds to the desires of the target market than
the organization could do alone. An organization must answer the question, Will our customers or clients be
better served by channel members rather than having us performs these functions? Gul Ahmed in this
regards, tend to offer its product through both its company owned retail outlets i.e. IDEAS and through other
retailers that offer all types of varieties of clothing from apparel industry.
Location
Getting the product in the right place and time is important. Arranging for authorized dealerships throughout
a wide geographic area allows products to be conveniently and affordably accessible to customers. In this
regards, Gul Ahmed has worked extensively to build and maintain its channel distribution networks. IDEAS
solely serve the major purpose of bringing out all the products that fall under Gul Ahmed brand umbrella.
Product variety
The ability to purchase other products from a retail store may enhance the sales and/or margins of all products
offered by attracting customers who appreciate the variety of products. And this is what IDEAS is doing. They
are hedging upon an exclusive market segment in Pakistan that is more brands conscious and is willing to pay
more for better quality, exclusive designs and product range. The company distinctively identifies its product
line into various categories. These are as follows;

For home
Gift ideas
Personal wear
Home furniture

Corporate Strategy
Vision
Ideas strives to be an international brand that cares for its customers and fulfills their home and personal
needs. Consumer and professional channels will recognize us as the leader in exclusive, high quality, modern
designs as well as impeccable service with courteous, informed and well-groomed sales consultants. Our aim
is to provide a distinctive cozy shopping environment with attractive dcor, a consistent availability of high
quality products and new product innovations. The vision of Ideas begins with an inspiration of being an
international brand. This is a symbol of their growth plan. This is both associated with the experiential brand
perception (the brand name Gul Ahmed) and the real products itself. Another major focus they have laid upon
in their vision is the relation that they have with their customers and professional channels. That means that

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this statement is not for the consumers only but for anybody who is directly or indirectly related to Gul
Ahmed.

Product Strategy
Target Market & customers
PLACEMENT CHANNELS
Ideas is a store by Gul Ahmed and therefore it follows exclusive distribution. The products by Gul Ahmed are
available at its store that is located in the major cities of Pakistan like
Karachi
Lahore
Islamabad
Hyderabad
At these stores customers get the entire range of Gul Ahmed products including home products, gifts and
personal wear. Along with its physical presence it has also maintained its online shopping facility for its
consumers. The consumers can log on to the website and can order online. The online presence has helped it
gain the international consumers and in this way it has built brand internationally.
Marketing Channels
Ideas follows integrated marketing communication in which it uses a number of advertising mediums to
communicate its personality and positioning to the consumers. Its IMC includes the following advertising
mediums
Billboards
Banners
Magazine
News paper
Internet
Ideas has its own magazine that it uses to communicate its new offerings to its target market. The magazine is
published twice a year with the changing variety due to the change in the season. Complete information is
given with images about its product range including home products, gifts and personal wear. Different

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celebrity endorsements are used to enhance the effectiveness of the brand. It has also been given the title of
SUPER BRANDS in Pakistan. Billboards are used to increase the brand visibility in Lahore, Hyderabad,
Karachi and Rawalpindi. Competitors have also placed billboards. New happenings are mostly communicated
through banners and newspapers. It has also maintained its online presence through its website which also
offers subscription and the consumers are updated through mails also. Ideas also care about its corporate
social responsibility. It has taken steps to make sure that the environment remains clean. For this the company
has installed a state of art water recycling plant to biologically treat its processing waters and gas turbine unit
to produce energy at a low carbon emission. Some of the areas that they focus include:
Re-using water
Re-using energy
Adopting efficient ways of producing energy
Disposing industrial water after proper filtration treatment

VALUE CHAIN
Gul Ahmed textile value chain activities:

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With an installed capacity of more than 130,000 spindles, 300 state-of-the-art weaving machines and most
modern yarn dyeing, processing & stitching units, Gul Ahmed is a composite unit making everything from
cotton yarn to finished products. The manufacturing cycle, which includes spinning, weaving, processing,
designing and stitching, results in an end product that is tailored to the most stringent customer requirements.
On the retail front, Ideas by Gul Ahmed offers fabrics and made-ups, ranging from home accessories to
clothing.

Gul Ahmad Supply Chain:

Gul Ahmed have the very strong and effective supply chain management; they have the number of items that
are major component of the Textile Industry that is Cotton, Yarn, Gray, Dyes & Chemicals, Spare parts,
Packing Material, Stitching Accessories, and General Items etc. they have the very transparent procedure of
the procurement of the above items, Cotton is normally a very specific material and the cotton are trade and
fluctuate on daily basis so the forward purchasing is done from the suppliers to avoid any stock out position.
They booked our cotton on the basis of the orders received from the export and the Local retail shops. The
same procedure applies to the Yarn and the Gray procurement. Dyes & Chemicals are mainly imported and we
have the internationally recognized suppliers like BASF, Clariant, Dystar, Stork etc. they are the quality
suppliers and they are also recommended by our valued customer as well. For the local purchasing such as
chemicals, Packing material and General Items we get the quotations from different suppliers and evaluate
each of them beside the price negotiations and finally to approved supplier we visit the factory to check either
any child labor or any envoi mental violation is being done at the factory. We are the quality supplier for our
customers so we strive to maintain the best quality.

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There is the procurement procedure as follows.

-The request raise from the department or user.
-The user prepares the requisition.
-The requisition review by the Store and if the item is available in stock they issue if not the asked to raise the
indent for the item to purchase.
-The Indent after scrutiny sends to the purchase department to get the rates from the approved suppliers.
-The purchase order is made and issued to the selected supplier and the supplier send the items on the agreed
time.
-The Store takes the item in the store receiving document and update the stock level.
-The Store department then asked for the store requisition from the user to issue the item from the store.
-After the delivery of the item from the supplier the payment summary is made as per the payment terms
agreed with the supplier and the cheque is issued for the payment to the supplier.
Supply Chain Drivers Transportation.
The Transportation is used for several purposes and we have the mix of the in-house and outsourced
transportation facilities. They used own transportation for the delivering to our retail outlets within the
Karachi and for other cities and for fabric / yarn movement within the different units we have the transport
contractors for different locations. They dont keep the single contractor to discourage the monopoly
Inventory Management:
Inventory is the major component of our financial statements and we put more effort to maintain the inventory
for smooth flow of production. We have a full proof inventory movement system Inventory Management
system. We are using the weighted average inventory system for calculating the rates of the individual item.

Distribution channel in textile industry

One of the most important industry in India is the textile industry. This industry has taken the proximate role
since independence and beyond. Earlier most of the industries under the textile umbrella were small and

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medium scale or cottage industries. Although they still exist immensely in our country but they are necessarily
a part of the unorganized sector now.
Indian textile industry largely depends upon the textile manufacturing and export. It also plays a large role in
the economy of the country. India earns about 27% of its total foreign exchange through textile exports.
Further, the textile industry contributes about 14% of the total industrial production and contributes about 3%
of the GDP of our country. It is also the largest industry in the world In terms of employment generation.
The distribution channel in textile industry is mainly a 1 tier and2 tier channel
1 tier
Manufacturer retailer-customer.
This is basically the case of company owned and operated showrooms (Raymonds, peter England, cantabile
etc.) plus shops which are licensed under the company or better called as franchisees. This is basically the
pattern of single brand showrooms and forms are mostly organized retailers.
2 tier
Manufacturer-whole seller-retailer-customer.
This is the most common pattern of distribution among consumer goods in India. The channel include a
whole seller who takes possession of goods as well as the title. The whole seller further sells the goods to
retailer in limited qualities.

Importance of an Effective Supply Chain in Textile Industry

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With the tag of worlds largest population holding country, it is more than just obvious for Pakistans textile
industry to have a significant contribution in the nations GDP. With a stature that big this industry has also
come to have a celebrated presence world-over. This being said, the textile industry of Pakistan, however, is
not as organized as one would assume it to be. Though the presence of intensely structured entities in the
market cannot be denied, but the fact of the matter is that the better part of this industry is still ruled by smallscale enterprises, which are either consumed in creating handicrafts or engaged in manufacturing of apparels.
Needless to state, it is this nature of textile industry that somehow cripples the existence of an effective supply
chain. In order to understand the same, we first need to acknowledge the fact that the garment supply chain
comprises of five major stages, which are
1. Fiber Production
2. Fabrication
3. Garmenting
4. Distribution
5. Retailing
As elementary as it may sound, the reality is that this process is complex, especially pertaining to the vastness
of the domestic market of Pakistan. Therefore, textile companies, small and big, are now coming to a point
where they are swiftly moving towards an efficient supply chain management, by exterminating the following
limitations that are widespread in the current model.
Cursory life-span of textiles, especially in case of clothing and apparel, which results in redundancy thus
giving way to overstocking and markdowns in pricing.
Higher lead time based on forecasts which usually doesnt match up with the ever
Changing customer behavior.
No access to real time information sharing between the provider or manufacturer and the retailer.

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 Lack in trust with respect to partnerships and collaboration in terms of profit earning as well as risk
sharing.
Unorganized logical infrastructure Once this is all taken care of, eventually, a more efficient and effective
supply chain management will come in place which will help the textile industry in achieving tremendous
amounts of benefits. The first of these benefits being, the ability to streamline the flow of inventory so that
persistent issues like overstocking and down-pricing may be avoided. Secondly, a system which is
technologically equipped will enable Quick Response (QR), which is of crucial importance in light of
minimizing the lead time. This in turn helps strengthen the collaborative practice between the manufacturer,
distributor and the retailer. Here the benefits can be reaped optimally, by assistance from the supplier at
various levels of the chain, along with relaying of information at every stage of the process of product
development. In fact, it is almost safe to state, that an efficient supply chain management can and will,
eventually lead to increased profitability and reduced waste, given that innovative channels such as the online
medium have now come into play.
The fact that they are offering personalization on some of their products makes them different from their
competitors. For instance they are offering to embroider on the bed sheets etc. according to the individual
customers. This is giving them an edge over their competitors. Another Strength is that they dont have many
competitors, so if they market tactfully they can make a mark within no time. The concept of having a one
shop stop is relatively increasing as people find it convenient to buy all the household stuff from a single
store. Although it is becoming a popular concept but they dont have many competitors in the market as the
market is not very saturated. One of the major strength they bank on is the increasing awareness of diversion
between income and economic classes. Shopping from good branded stores and malls has become a trend. So,
shopping from these big stores is becoming a status symbol. Now is the right time to make the most out of this
strength which is at its peak right now.

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