Dennison – Making Men More Smart, Handsome & Adorable. Its all about A Man

Who says fashion is just a woman’s need. In recent year fashion has changed many dimensions and verticals. Everyone be it man or woman or even kids want to look good.
Good Cloths, Nice shoes, Fancy Accessories are a part of our corporate as well as social culture. People always tend to attract to other who dress well. If you are dressed well, presentable you always leave a long lasting impression on the people around you whether you are in some social or family event or a professional event.
Meet Ashwini Seth who was always a fashion freak, being from a family of business people especially from fashion segment, Ashwini always had passion for business and fashion. He not only joined his family business of men’s Apparel brand but also took it to heights with his passion, knowledge as well as his education background in fashion. Today he is heading a large team of people in his family business and is a motivator, mentor as well as a guide for them towards growth and success.

Lets meet this fashion freak and see what his venture is doing to make Indian man more stylish, smart and adorable.
1.What is the Name of Your Venture?
Dennison. It’s a mens Apparel brand.
2.Who is your target Audience?
Well my target Audience is Generation Y and Generation Z. Office going , College student.Age group between 18- 45 Years
3.Where is your venture based ( city, state, country) & What are your target areas?
My venture is based in Gwalior Madhya Pradesh, India.For now our target is Pan India.
4.What problems does your venture solve? What are your products or services.
Well it’s a family business and I joined it 2.5 years back and having a fashion and research background in education I reliased in very early stage that people want affordable fashion i.e trendy fashion with budget price and Ecommerce was boomming at its best so reaching Pan India through it was lot easier which helps us achieving economies of scales hence bring cost of the product at its lowest Hence, we were able to provide affordable fashion clothing. Well for now we are a product base company having product line i.e Formal Shirts, Casual Shirts, Leather products like Belts, Wallets Etc, Accesssories, Tshirts, Nehru Jackets(coming soon)
5.Share the idea or story behind the venture. How did it come to an existence?
Well this brand was established in 1989 with a local store in Gwalior by my father and he also started small manufacturing units when the country was moving towards privatization and globalization. Also Idea behind this starting this brand was learning from earlier mistake he did in his earlier startup in apparel which did not go well due to miscommunication. So this is where,Dennison came into existence.For me, it was started in 2014 when I completed my Master and always had dream to something in fashion as it was in my blood, watching it since my childhood. So Ecommerce Industry was booming and it was great plafform for us start and reach pan India.Hence, We focused on our product design and quality to packaging everything was taken care of.launched our brand on Snapdeal, Amazon, Flipkart, Jabong, Myntra and recently launched our own ecommerce website www.dennison.in.
6.How did you identify your co-founder? Tell us some thing about your co-founder/s
I do not have any cofounder.
7. How did you hired your first team members
So in very starting I started working alone on it and as order started pouring day by day but it was long wait. One day I reliased that I cannot handle it alone so there was person working at store Mukul He was interested in doing all this and we started working on it and as our business was increasing I did a local placement in one the fashion college in my City and had my First Intern Yashi. We all worked hard together mark our presence in the Industry. Now we are a team of 15 dedicated for Ecommerce Business. Over all employment direct or Indirect would be approx 100 people .
8.What expansion plans are you looking for the next 2 years, next 5 years?
We have recently launched our website www.dennison.in Will focus on promoting it, targeting offline organized sector to increase our presence, focusing on increasing social media reach as most of our targeted audience is on Social Media. We will be also expanding product width by lauching Tshirts, Denim, Shorts and leather accessories and shoes. As of long term Goal We will launching series of brand For Men, Women and Kids . I look forward to be next Madura.
9.Where do you want to see yourself in next 10 years?
Well I want to see my self as a Investor who running a Co Working space for startup. I believe in power of ideas . As for this I started a group on facebook Startup and Intenship in India three years back which has now 40000 thousand members from different parts of the country.I lost my job within 24days after joining and I decided to do a intern but I wasn’t able to find it.So I decided to form a group and Obviously I can spend more time with my family.
10.Have you raised any funding? Or have any plans for the funding?
Well my father invested in this when he reliased there is a potential in it and now we are self sustainable and moving towards profitability.Yes, We will be looking for investments for our new brands which is in process to launch. We will launching it within next 3 month and will then look for investors and early bird investors will be welcomed.
11.What were the problems you faced during the starting days and how did you resolve them?
Well there always challenge I to had, from people not believing in me it was hard to convince that selling on ecommerce was a good idea. There were lot of people around me who questioned me as I was not having any past credibility. So it took me a year to convince my family specially my dad this is a profitable venture because I believed it is always better to take money from closed rather than going out. There other challenges like when Ecommerce started responding I made some blunders like purchasing wrong design which was a disaster because it created a losses to us although I take this as a learning. We then started with proper design research process and making collection according to marketing trends and consumer preferences. One of my major challenges is to build a core team being in Gwalior it has always being a challenge to find a right talent and resources. Also connectivity is another important challenge. We have to invest a lot on stocking up the raw material as we need to outsource them from metros. Although now we are planning to open new office in delhi to over come such challenges. It will help us to reduce cost also.
12. What have been your biggest challenges and learning so far?
As said earlier Gwalior being smaller town there is scarcity of raw material, human resource and lack of infrastructure. This is the main challenge we are facing.
13.Are you married, single or in a relationship?
Single
14.What are your hobbies? What do you do in your non-work time?
I love to travel, Brainstorm on new ideas, reading articles on different subject, thinking about universe and our planet existence.
15.Whats your favorite food & holiday destination?
Well I love eating everything which has a good taste. For place there is no specific but yes I fall in love with Spiti Valley and chandertal Lake near manali.
16.Whom do you consider your idol or biggest motivator?
My Father, Ratan Tata Ji, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and I think everyone one those who thought to make this society a better place to live.
17.What do you feel is the major difference between entrepreneurs and those who work for someone else?
I don’t find much difference I think both needs to be motivated and have vision in life.We all go through some other challenges. Entrepreneur creates a system and people who works someone is a part of that system.
18.If you had the chance to start your career over again, what would you do differently?
I will go for a job in the established organization who are performing well and understand there process also what made them reach at the top and then start my venture again with those learning.
19.How has being an entrepreneur affected your family & Social life?
It affects a lot because ecommerce industry is no that stable Hence there are times when we have to work almost 12- 14 hours a day for weeks. I remember I haven’t taken single holiday for almost a year even working from home on Sundays.
20.Anything, you would like to say to our readers or upcoming entrepreneurs?
I would say do what you love, have vision for it ,before you start anything go for a proper research, Work hard and be smart.
21.Tell us something about your education & family background.
I did my schooling from Scindia School, Gwalior and Masters in Marketing and a professional course in Apparel Design from Delhi. I come from a Business family so this is something you can say was in my blood.
22.What is your USP which makes it unique & different from other start-ups in similar domains.
Our USP is in the depth of the product line and choices you can have in our product. For example if there is someone looking for blue shirt so we have 20-25 shades available in blue So if someone is looking for particular shades then there are possibilities he find the right one. Also our campaign Strategies Like we launched Entrepreneur Collection last year Where we targeted people working in Startups as its trend now most of the people taking risk to working in startup. So taking advantage of startup trend we introduce Classic clothing Line with affordable prices. We will be soon coming up with custom clothing with 24 hours guaranteed dispatch.
23. What do you think is the biggest threat to the success of small businesses & Start-ups today?
Big fish eats small fish. It is always good to swim Blue ocean.
24. Do you consider yourself successful and by what means do you measure success?
I feel satisfied for what I am doing and yes for business profitability means success but for me it has to be wealth maximization that is where I think we will successful and we are working on it.
25.Please share complete name, address, phone number, email id & website of Your Business & Contact Person
Dennison India, Ground Floor Star Plaza, Lashkar Gwalior
Phone- 07514040797
Email- [email protected]
Website- www.dennison.in
Contact Person – Vinay – [email protected]