Hey students,
Do you have an interest in fashion? If your answer is a ?Yes,? then the journey of Nidhi Yadav is just the example for you.
Nidhi Yadav, the brain behind the famous womenswear fashion brand AKS, can spot a trend a mile away and that?s her secret. The lady with subtle panache and perfection is the queen of fusion wears in the Indian Subcontinent who loves to drape contemporary women in best attires and fits. She is not just an acclaimed designer; she is a successful business leader too who can envision the opportunities with utmost confidence.
Born and brought up in Indore, Nidhi is a Computer Science graduate who worked at a consulting firm Deloitte for a year and a half before realizing what she really wanted to do. During her year-end presentation at the company, Nidhi was asked a simple question that changed the course of her life: ?When was the last time you wanted to go to the office?? Her honest response was, ?Never.?
During this time, Nidhi happened to watch the Meryl Streep starrer ?The Devil Wears Prada.? She was taken aback by the subject and the characters in the movie. The story revolves around two women in the fashion industry and their struggles. Yadav realized that she too wanted to be in that world but she had no idea how to break into it.
She looked up fashion-related programs offered across the world and enrolled for a one-year course in Fashion Buying and Merchandising at the Polimoda Fashion School in Florence, Italy. Although she got a job at an Italian fashion brand Emilio Pucci, she soon returned to India to be with her family.
After the birth of their child, her husband started encouraging Yadav to do something entrepreneurial. Nidhi had studied many fashion apparel brands like Zara and H&M during the fashion designing course in Italy. Influenced by their success stories, she was determined to transform her creative skills into business strengths. Her foresight has also helped here to view untapped business opportunities in the e-commerce sector.
She had a discouraging start when she handed Rs. 500,000 to a known person to buy the initial stock but that person didn?t keep the promise and returned the money after a year. However, not stopping at that and blessed with a creative bent of mind and sharp business acumen, she decided to embark into the fashion world with an ethnic fusion brand ?AKS.? With a seed capital of only 3.5 lakhs, a small warehouse of less than a thousand units, and the responsibility of a 7-month old baby, Nidhi Yadav established AKS in May 2014 despite these challenges.
She would carry her daughter every time she went to negotiate with the sellers, during the initial phase of her business. And this went on for a while. Her daughter started remembering names of prints and surprised her later. When she was five she knew jargons such as ?inventory? and ?dispatch? as well as the competitors? brand names.
It was a challenge to crack suppliers. After a few months of hard work, she cherry picked some designs and went live with 936 pieces on Jabong. In May 2014 on the first day, they got three orders. The next day, it was 13 and on day three, it was 39. Their collection quickly gained good momentum. Kurtis formed their largest category, contributing to 50% of sales.
Empowering women is a big part of AKS?s values. Since she always wanted to generate employment and contribute to society. Women entrepreneurs run nearly 60 percent of the firms that AKS outsources work to and more than 50 percent of AKS?s employees are women.
In 2014, AKS generated Rs 1.60 crores in revenue, which climbed to Rs. 8.50 crores the following year. It closed its third year with Rs. 23 crores and fourth with Rs. 48 crores. In the following year, AKS made Rs. 75 crores till Q3 and had an Annual Run Rate (ARR) of Rs. 100 crores in gross revenue, clocking 150-200 percent top-line growth. AKS also has plans to launch franchises and bring its manufacturing in-house. To scale up its offline penetration, AKS has already opened two offline stores in Nagaland and plans to open at least 10 stores across India. Nidhi dreams to see her company among the top 10 apparel brands of the country in the next five years.
The speed with which new designs are churned out is a differentiator of the brand. Around 50% of their collection is always new and the other 50% is made of pieces that sell the most. Noticing AKS? success on Jabong, Myntra too knocked on her door. The online retailer on boarded AKS in 2015 and there has been no looking back for Nidhi. Sixty percent of the brand?s sales today happen on Myntra. Having performed consistently over Myntra, she was selected for the platform?s accelerator program in 2017.
Well if you like this inspiring story, then do share it with others!
" /> Hey students,
Do you have an interest in fashion? If your answer is a ?Yes,? then the journey of Nidhi Yadav is just the example for you.
Nidhi Yadav, the brain behind the famous womenswear fashion brand AKS, can spot a trend a mile away and that?s her secret. The lady with subtle panache and perfection is the queen of fusion wears in the Indian Subcontinent who loves to drape contemporary women in best attires and fits. She is not just an acclaimed designer; she is a successful business leader too who can envision the opportunities with utmost confidence.
Born and brought up in Indore, Nidhi is a Computer Science graduate who worked at a consulting firm Deloitte for a year and a half before realizing what she really wanted to do. During her year-end presentation at the company, Nidhi was asked a simple question that changed the course of her life: ?When was the last time you wanted to go to the office?? Her honest response was, ?Never.?
During this time, Nidhi happened to watch the Meryl Streep starrer ?The Devil Wears Prada.? She was taken aback by the subject and the characters in the movie. The story revolves around two women in the fashion industry and their struggles. Yadav realized that she too wanted to be in that world but she had no idea how to break into it.
She looked up fashion-related programs offered across the world and enrolled for a one-year course in Fashion Buying and Merchandising at the Polimoda Fashion School in Florence, Italy. Although she got a job at an Italian fashion brand Emilio Pucci, she soon returned to India to be with her family.
After the birth of their child, her husband started encouraging Yadav to do something entrepreneurial. Nidhi had studied many fashion apparel brands like Zara and H&M during the fashion designing course in Italy. Influenced by their success stories, she was determined to transform her creative skills into business strengths. Her foresight has also helped here to view untapped business opportunities in the e-commerce sector.
She had a discouraging start when she handed Rs. 500,000 to a known person to buy the initial stock but that person didn?t keep the promise and returned the money after a year. However, not stopping at that and blessed with a creative bent of mind and sharp business acumen, she decided to embark into the fashion world with an ethnic fusion brand ?AKS.? With a seed capital of only 3.5 lakhs, a small warehouse of less than a thousand units, and the responsibility of a 7-month old baby, Nidhi Yadav established AKS in May 2014 despite these challenges.
She would carry her daughter every time she went to negotiate with the sellers, during the initial phase of her business. And this went on for a while. Her daughter started remembering names of prints and surprised her later. When she was five she knew jargons such as ?inventory? and ?dispatch? as well as the competitors? brand names.
It was a challenge to crack suppliers. After a few months of hard work, she cherry picked some designs and went live with 936 pieces on Jabong. In May 2014 on the first day, they got three orders. The next day, it was 13 and on day three, it was 39. Their collection quickly gained good momentum. Kurtis formed their largest category, contributing to 50% of sales.
Empowering women is a big part of AKS?s values. Since she always wanted to generate employment and contribute to society. Women entrepreneurs run nearly 60 percent of the firms that AKS outsources work to and more than 50 percent of AKS?s employees are women.
In 2014, AKS generated Rs 1.60 crores in revenue, which climbed to Rs. 8.50 crores the following year. It closed its third year with Rs. 23 crores and fourth with Rs. 48 crores. In the following year, AKS made Rs. 75 crores till Q3 and had an Annual Run Rate (ARR) of Rs. 100 crores in gross revenue, clocking 150-200 percent top-line growth. AKS also has plans to launch franchises and bring its manufacturing in-house. To scale up its offline penetration, AKS has already opened two offline stores in Nagaland and plans to open at least 10 stores across India. Nidhi dreams to see her company among the top 10 apparel brands of the country in the next five years.
The speed with which new designs are churned out is a differentiator of the brand. Around 50% of their collection is always new and the other 50% is made of pieces that sell the most. Noticing AKS? success on Jabong, Myntra too knocked on her door. The online retailer on boarded AKS in 2015 and there has been no looking back for Nidhi. Sixty percent of the brand?s sales today happen on Myntra. Having performed consistently over Myntra, she was selected for the platform?s accelerator program in 2017.
Well if you like this inspiring story, then do share it with others!
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