"After a successful four decades experience in the home furnishing segment, Medusa Source ventured into the fashion apparel business. The company supplies garments to some of the top brands of North America, Europe, Latin America, Middle East, Asia Pacific and Australia. It follows the best modern supply side practices with added refinements based on its experience in the segment. Medusa constantly innovates to reduce costs that help in making the clients more competitive in the market. Sonal Jindal and Chetan Mathur, Managing Partners of the company elaborate on their operations and future plans."

After a successful four decades experience in the home furnishing segment, Medusa Source ventured into the fashion apparel business. The company supplies garments to some of the top brands of North America, Europe, Latin America, Middle East, Asia Pacific and Australia. It follows the best modern supply side practices with added refinements based on its experience in the segment. Medusa constantly innovates to reduce costs that help in making the clients more competitive in the market. Sonal Jindal and Chetan Mathur, Managing Partners of the company elaborate on their operations and future plans.

Highlight your company’s operations and achievements over the years.

A supply chain management company, Medusa Source provides product-sourcing solutions to brands, retailers, labels and wholesalers worldwide. Our work includes identifying and evaluating factories, design and development assistance, production follow-ups, stringent quality control, logistics and shipping consolidations. We have a wide network comprising 150 suppliers and manufacturers across India, Nepal and Sri Lanka.

What is the vision behind the company?

We have been involved with product sourcing for over four decades. However, our method of functioning has transformed over years as we have adopted new methods of doing business to suit client’s interests.

What has been your experience so far?

A production-oriented business faces new challenges every day. However, these challenges teach a manufacturer to deal with people in changing demographics, different working conditions, and different cultures. So far, our journey has been extremely rewarding and we plan to elevate our business to new highs in future.

Which services and solutions do you provide to your partner brands?

We are involved in complete supply chain management cycle. From identifying the right vendor, factory audits and compliance checks, assisting product development, order follow-ups, quality control to shipping consolidations, we provide complete sourcing solutions.

Who are the people responsible for growth and journey of your company?

Our Managing Partners, Sonal and Chetan navigate the ship. They are ably supported by a young and enterprising team of designers, merchandisers, quality controllers, audit and compliance managers, IT, admin & HR. Each member of the team is committed to his or her job responsibilities and understands the importance of delivering quality and efficiency. Some team members have been with us for over 20 years, and have contributed immensely to the company’s growth. They are trained to handle delicate situations especially ground level production issues and response time to the clients, etc.

What are the new opportunities in this segment?

India is seen as a major production hub for value-added garments and accessories. However, we are capable of delivering much more than this. With adequate access to raw materials, and investments in machinery and technology, our manufacturers can produce high quality and fashionable products at similar or better quality levels than Western countries.

What challenges do you face as a supply chain management company? Fluctuating currencies, rising labor and material costs, increasing competition, lack of skilled labor, political changes, complicated and high tax structure, traceability and accountability in the production cycle and lack of infrastructure are some of the challenged we currently face.

Which is the most scalable segment for you? Who are your competitors?

Amongst all categories that we currently handle, Ready-to-Wear (RTW) garment is the most scalable product segment. Our competitors are large sourcing and supply chain management companies. However, we consider them more as peers rather than competitors and look up to them to achieve the same level of technological advancements that they have achieved. We are also investing in IT-driven tools to make our processes more sustainable, improve our performance levels and be a leader in the industry.

What is your take on the global and domestic apparel and fashion market?

The emergence of e-commerce companies and penetration of fast fashion product lines have changed the whole ball game for both global and domestic apparel and fashion makers. Changing trends, looks, themes and fashion are giving established brands a run for their money. Consumers can buys outfits similar to those offered by high-end luxury brands at a fraction of price. This has pushed manufacturers and sellers to focus on price-driven product lines rather than only quality driven.

What are your future plans?

We plan to increase RTW exports to the European and American markets in the next two years.