'My focus for Mafatlal is to take uniforms to the world'

Priyavrata Mafatlal, vice-chairman of the Arvind Mafatlal group and managing director of Mafatlal Industries, spoke to Akshara Srivastava and Nivedita Mookerji about reimagining the 121-year-old brand, coping with geopolitical disruptions, family-owned versus professionally-run businesses, and more.

- Priyavrata Mafatlal

Edited excerpts from an exclusive interview with the 38-year old Mafatlal, a fifth generation industrialist, when he visited New Delhi recently:

The Mafatlal group has been in the uniforms space for long. Why have you decided to move online at this point?

■ Yes, we have been in the school ecosystem for a very long time, having made clothes for one in nine school-going Indian kids. But branding was not important at the time; things have changed now as the country becomes more aspirational. We’ve noticed that people want to know the label behind the uniform. The tailoring industry is also becoming smaller and the shift towards garments is being expedited with the advent of e-commerce. So, we've added that layer in the form of a marketplace for corporate houses and schools. We are also expanding that to hospitals with the launch of Mafatlal MedFits (apparel for healthcare professionals)... We will have pockets that will be online and allow us to be proactive rather than reactive.

The House of Mafatlal in the last 120 years has witnessed many ups and downs. What does the House signify now and what is the kind of generational shift that you are steering?

■ Internally, I think, it signifies immense resilience and the ability to bounce back from everything that is thrown at us — from the first World War to Covid-19 — that is the DNA of the organisation. The worst phase for us was in the 90s when we were a formally sick company in the BIFR (Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction) and we didn’t know if we would exist or not. So, it is our responsibility towards the organisation that we put ourselves back out there and tell people a story, which they may be inspired by.

You have recently forayed into exports too. How did that come about?