appreciate by 55 times to about
`20,011 since going public in 2007 at
`360 apiece. Earnings per share (EPS)
for FY17 were `238.74, more than
the combined EPS of information
technology majors Infosys, Wipro
and Tata Consultancy Services.
In the process, the Genomal
family’s fortune has grown manifold.
Led by brothers Sunder, Ramesh, 68,
and Nari, 76, the promoters hold a
49 percent stake in the `22,320-crore
company, culminating in a net worth
of `11,360 crore ($1.75 billion). Sunder
Genomal and family are ranked 87th
on the 2017 Forbes India Rich List.t
he association between
the Genomal family and
Jockey dates back to the
1950s, when Sunder Genomal’s father
Genomal Verhomal ran a textile
and garment import and wholesale
business, V Lilaram & Co, which,among others things, imported
Jockey innerwear to
cater to the US military personnel
stationed in the Philippines. It wasn’t
long before the brand caught the
fancy of the locals, prompting Jockey
to offer Verhomal a manufacturing
and distribution licence in 1959.
An astute businessman, Verhomal
ensured that his sons, Nari, Ramesh
and Sunder, got a solid understanding
of the business before they took
over; whenever the boys would get
time off from their studies, they
would be at the offices and shop
floors of the business. Genomal
recalls stepping into a Jockey
manufacturing unit owned by his
father when he was 10, and spending
his teenage years running errands—
packing cartons, taking stock of theinventory, and going on sales rounds.
After completing his engineering
in industrial management from
De La Salle University in the
Philippines, Genomal formally
joined the family business in 1976.
In 1993, it was time to make all
this experience count by entering
an unchartered territory like India,
where the women’s innerwear
segment was dominated by brands
such as Lovable, Daisy Dee, Libertina,
Neva and Feather Line, among
others, and men had to choose
from among mass-market brands
such as VIP, Rupa, Amul, Lux Cozi
and Dollar. Jockey aimed to fill the
void in the premium segment. Back
then, retailers barely focussed on
innerwear. More often than not,
stocks were piled in store rooms or
shoved under a counter. There were
limited design and colour options.
Let alone in-shop advertisements,even displaying the products
alongside apparels was unthinkable.
This was the market that Genomal
entered with the aim of selling a
brand that was high on design,
packaging and marketing. Founded
by Samuel T Cooper in 1876 in St
Joseph, Michigan, Jockey claims
to be the first innerwear brand to
display products on the sales floors
of major retailers in the 1910s, and
the first innerwear brand to be
endorsed by sports stars such as
baseball legends George ‘Babe’ Ruth
Jr, Jim Palmer and Peter ‘Pete’ Rose;
it even hosted an innerwear fashion
show in 1938, and introduced the
concept of stitching the brand name
onto the waistband of products.
Genomal had to find distributors
who would buy into his dream;those who would devote time and
resources to meet Jockey’s global
marketing standards. “We couldn’t
have our products displayed and
sold the way innerwear was being
sold at that time. My biggest fear
was how retailers in India would
accept our model for selling and
marketing the brand,” he says.
Genomal started by employing
consultancy firm Marg to conduct
a market research, based on sample
products he sent to India from
the Philippines; Marg’s report
contained rave reviews of the
products. Genomal’s brothers-in-
law and their acquaintances, who
ran businesses in India and were
familiar with the textile industry,
helped him understand the supply
chain complexities in the country.
By early 1994, Genomal had laid
out the blueprint of setting up shop
in India. Page Industries (then
called Page Apparel Manufacturing)
would source raw material, operate
their own manufacturing facilities
and supply finished products to
distributors across the country.
Over his frequent trips to India,
during which Genomal would visit
factories and fabric manufacturers,
he had identified Mumbai as the city
in which to set up the company’s
headquarters. But that was not to be.
On one such trip to India in June
1994, this time accompanied by his
wife Madhuri, Genomal decided
to visit his sister in Bengaluru for
the first time. What was initially
planned as a two-day break from
work, stretched to 10 days. Genomal
spent most of the time in identifying
a location for a factory and stitching
deals with suppliers of raw materials.
“Real estate was much cheaper
in Bengaluru than in Mumbai. You
could get sprawling properties
here, which would be just 35 to
40 minutes away from the centre
of the city. In fact, we were also
planning to source a lot of raw
material from down South, from
Tiruppur, Chennai, Bengaluru58 | forbes india december 29, 2017Richest
10 0 IndIans
TheSince its launch in 1994,
Page Industries has dwarfed
Indian innerwear brands