As you sit down to have a no-holds-barred conversation with Vijay Bansal, CMD, Cantabil Retail, the first and foremost thing which will strike you is his unquestionable, unassuming character. The man from Haryana may have successfully spearheaded his company (bearing an Italian name meaning smooth flowing musical piece) in the cut-throat branded apparel segment and made it a brand well visible on the high streets of metros and leading cities and towns in the country, but the quintessential earthiness, which you often notice in the first-generation entrepreneurs, has not eluded him. Now close to his 70s, Bansal does not mince words in telling you that, in the initial part of his working life, he was more like a Jack of all trades. The calling in life, which eventually put him in command of an apparel brand, happened much later in the typical one-thing-leading-to-another style.
It is no secret that the branded garment segment with specific divisions or pillars like men’s wear, women’s and children’s wear, and accessories ranging from belts to the recently included sneakers, is a gigantic business. Aditya Birla Fashion, Trent, Max, Zudio, Yousta, etc, are some of the leading players in the general category; and then, there are a host of players with specialisation in different segments like women’s wear, men’s wear or ethnic wear. According to a recent CareEdge Ratings report, the Indian apparel market was estimated to be valued at Rs9 lakh crore in 2024-25, out of which the share of organised retail sales was 41 per cent. Cantabil, a mid-tier player which has diversified after surviving a serious sectoral existential crisis phase in the early part of the last decade, is part of this organised pie, which is growing at a brisk pace. A typical high-street entity, its store network is now expanding across the country, after having established a formidable base in northern India.
The size of its stores is growing, and so are the product categories on its shelves. The enlisted firm, which completed its 25th year last year, is inching close to the Rs1,000 crore milestone and is now looking at a spell of higher growth trajectory in its post-silver-jubilee spell. “As Cantabil celebrates 25 years, it looks ahead with a renewed sense of ambition and purpose,” says Deepak Bansal, son of the chairman & a whole-time director of the firm, who is now playing an important role in crafting a more eventful future for the company. “Our focus is on building the next phase of growth with the same creativity and trust that have defined our journey so far”.
Arriving on the scene
The conversation with the top brass of the company will make it clear that Rs1,000 crore topline is going to be a major milestone (expected in 2026-27). And, for this, it has subtly put in place an efficient back-end and front-end structure to cover all legs of the operations. The fulcrum of its back-end strength is its sprawling 2,00,000 sq ft production unit in Bahadurgarh, with a current capacity to churn out 1.8 million pieces, primarily of shirts, trousers and blazers. Nestled in the middle of an industrial zone, which is about 40 km from Cantabil’s headquarters at Lawrence Road, Delhi, you will notice a workforce of about 500 personnel in action (about 80 per cent of them are women) as you stroll through different sections of expansive factory floors. Watching the production process may even remind one of the assembly line of an automobile factory – after design approval and cloth cutting, the raw piece passes through different points of the circular production line where collars, cuffs, buttons, zips and other components are attached before the final piece comes out of the line for packaging. And then there is a modest-scale warehouse in the unit, which is used for assembling the raw materials or dispatching the final products to different destinations. The plant can be further scaled, and it takes care of 60 per cent of the company’s production requirements; for the balance, it has reliable contract manufacturing partners in Ludhiana.
The interesting, large-scale scene then pans out to the Bahadurgarh factory, which owes its qualities to the entrepreneurial astuteness of Vijay Bansal. He came from a business family (his father owned a local grocery store in Jind, Haryana), but the commerce graduate had the intent to go beyond and make his own mark in the business. So, he remained in an exploratory mode for a long time – starting with acquiring agency rights for some noted FMCGs for local distribution, running a local oil mill unit, etc; he later arrived in Delhi in the mid-1980s to run a franchise store for Liberty Shoes, and then shifted gears to sell trouser zips and later buttons in bulk to tailoring units in the national capital and other cities. It was this specific stint which took him closer to the apparel and garment business, in which he became a leading franchisee of a well-known, Delhi-based brand.
In about 2000, when Bansal felt that his presence as a franchisee was not giving him enough space to grow, he decided to take the plunge with his own brand, for which he opted for an Italian name for no specific rhyme or reason. “While searching for a name, I found the Italian word Cantabile, which means ‘able to sing’. I liked its pronunciation and the international feel, so I named the brand Cantabil,” he says matter-of-factly. After starting with men’s wear and five outlets in Delhi, he later spread out to the nearby cities like Jaipur, where he set foot in 2003. By 2008, Cantabil initiated a new vertical of women’s wear and other garments. And there is another interesting sub-plot to Cantabil’s journey in its first decade related to its IPO debut at the bourses. “In 2010, after studying another company’s IPO presentation, I realised that we could also go public,” he says, while adding that the fresh capital infusion (generated about Rs110 crore) meant paving the way for further expansion in its second decade. “As a standalone branded wear company, we had ended the first financial year with a revenue of Rs10 crore (from five outlets at strategic locations in Delhi). By the end of 2010, our revenue was Rs210 crore and profit, Rs16 crore,” he says.
Market analysts imply that the 2000-08 period, when Cantabil was taking preliminary steps, was especially known for the unshackling of consumer spending backed by rising incomes, and this had acted as a major cushion and catalyst for many segments, including apparel and garments. Meanwhile, much of the expansion, which the company undertook via the store route, was strategically placed on high streets and not malls, which were picked up by the bigger brands. “Bigger brands were booking large spaces, which we did not need for our format. And, the mall operators didn’t want us, and we also did not want them. High street is where we wanted to make our presence felt, and that is where you will find us in most of the cities and even smaller towns in the country today,” Bansal explains.
Surviving the crisis
But, while the climax of its first decade had a promising ending (coinciding with the IPO for future expansion), the period 2010-15 was unsettling for many mid-tier players in the branded garment business. There was an influx of several entities that were trying to penetrate consumers’ wallets with unheard-of deep discounts and a bundle scheme (buy two and get five kinds of offerings). Cantabil, too, was part of this game to stay competitive. But most of the players in this category ended up bleeding profusely, resulting in unceremonious exits. “By 2010-13, many regional and mid-sized players had entered the market using heavy discounts and bundle schemes to attract customers. However, several of these players lacked strong back-end systems, clear brand positioning and financial discipline,” says P.M. Monga, co-founder & principal consultant, SRED, a real estate and retail consultancy firm. “Over time, rising rental costs, higher working capital requirements and stronger competition made survival difficult for such players. According to industry estimates, store rationalisation and closures among smaller regional brands were significant between 2015 and 2020, as organised players expanded aggressively,” he adds.
Vijay Bansal admits that the retail slowdown was quite a challenge, which forced many players to fold up. “The retail slowdown hit in about 2012, and many companies suffered. We also suffered heavy losses – about Rs70 crore – over three years,” he recalls. Cantabil had to tick the retreat option to survive, and that meant drastically reducing its store count. “We had 300 stores and had to close nearly half of them. We began cleaning the inventory and focused only on best-selling products. We improved selection, furniture, visuals, and the overall shopping experience,” he recalls. A substantial part of the stores which were closed belonged to a subsidiary brand – La FANSO (specialising in men’s wear, economy section) – which Cantabil had initiated a few years earlier, before it hit the crunch point.
According to Bansal, after a prolonged period of reverses and a just chugging along kind of existence, turnaround trends began surfacing after 2016. And much of this also owed to a disciplined approach, where improving sales wasn’t pursued at the cost of ignoring bottom-line concerns. “From 2016 onwards, our sales improved, and since then, we have maintained a robust growth trajectory. For the last seven years, we have maintained about 20 per cent CAGR. Last year, we reached Rs721 crore sales and Rs75 crore profit. Earlier, we followed heavy discounts, but now we maintain discipline. Our annual discount does not exceed 55 per cent, and gross profit remains at 58-59 per cent. Pricing is more structured now,” Bansal explains the change in strategic approach, which has helped the company to bounce back.
Creating a stable base
The decision to change the operational strategy is reflected in its critical performance metrics. As per its latest investor presentation, the company’s store count has shot up to 646, covering 882,000 sq ft of space. The company has added 47 stores to its kitty during the first month of the current fiscal. Uttar Pradesh (107), Rajasthan (89), Maharashtra (71), Delhi (62), Haryana (58) and Gujarat (45) are the leading markets in terms of store units. The expanding store unit network has some critical characteristics, affirms Shivendra Nigam, CFO, Cantabil Retail. “Firstly, we are broadly pursuing the COCO (company-owned, company-operated) model in store management. We own and operate 80 per cent of our stores, while the remaining are with franchise partners. And secondly, our average store size has significantly grown from what was 600-700 sq ft 10 years back to 1,400 sq ft now, which is reflective of our growth momentum,” he underlines. “We had probably made the best of the low retail rental scenario after the pandemic and signed many new stores then,” he further informs.
Some of the other critical parameters that he cites include average selling price (ASP) of Rs1,349, which puts Cantabil in the mid-premium segment, along with the likes of Peter England. The company has managed to register regular upticks on financial metrics (see graph) and is expecting to close this fiscal with a topline figure in the vicinity of Rs850 crore.
Market analysts also endorse the assumption that Cantabil has shown strong survival instincts and seems to have scripted a strong comeback story. “In my view, Cantabil has successfully carved out a niche in the mid-market segment. Its strength lies in steady expansion, controlled growth, and strong presence in emerging cities. Going forward, maintaining freshness in design and strengthening its digital and omnichannel presence will be important for sustained growth,” Monga suggests. Last September, credit rating agency ICRA had also reaffirmed the long-term rating of the company as stable, saying that “CRIL’s revenue and earnings growth will remain strong, aided by its established brand and continuing store expansion, while its comfortable financial risk profile is expected to be sustained with limited reliance on borrowings and an adequate liquidity position. Furthermore, the growth impetus for branded apparel has been projected to stay stronger as per a latest report by CareEdge with rising penetration of online sales and organised players’ concerted efforts to reach out to Tier I and II markets.
For Cantabil, while the four-digit crore mark for revenue is going to be the next major milestone, it has its eyes set on the kind of consistent growth it would expect from the supporting pillars. The top brass is also aiming at touching the 750-store mark by 2026-27. At the same time, management also has clear intentions to increase its online sales share to 8-10 per cent from the current 5-6 per cent. Its men’s wear offerings still account for a dominant share of its total sales (about 81 per cent), even as the branded women’s wear vertical is considered the fastest-growing segment in the branded garment segment. According to Vijay Bansal, the company is keen to enhance the share of its other verticals in the total sales. And it is equally eager to penetrate the South Indian market where, barring a small presence in Telangana, it has not really set its foot. Nigam, meanwhile, maintains that post Rs1,000 crore revenue spell, the company will be looking at new frontiers, and it will also be doing more on marketing and buzz creation (a point where market observers feel Cantabil has not been quite agile). “This may also include engaging a noted celebrity as a brand ambassador,” he says. Clearly, Cantabil’s top brass seems to be ready with a plan to raise the pitch of the company’s Italian signature tune.