Rony Joseph started his venture Henry Classics as a solution to his own problem – unable to find good fit shirts. This later hatched to a business idea where he combined it with the E commerce advantage to render online delivery of custom made tailor fit shirts for men.
People are unique and all of us have our own style & body fit. But we compromise with ill-fitted shirts readily available in the market due to lack of fine quality fabric or stitching issues. We fill in this role to give customers custom made shirts according to their body type.
Give a brief info about your start-up?
Our start up ‘’Henry Classics’’ is a customized shirt brand under Flagship Apparels Pvt Ltd launched in July 2018. Anyone can easily customize their style and fit online through our website-www.henryclassics.com. We have 3D rendering system integrated in our platform, through which customer can watch the real shirt image and customization process.
People are unique and all of us have our own style & body fit. But we compromise with ill-fitted shirts readily available in the market due to lack of fine quality fabric or stitching issues. We fill in this role to give customers custom made shirts according to their body type.
We have various collection of fabrics like Egyptian Giza cotton & Italian Linen sourced from premium mills in India & abroad. Customers can select various options in collar, cuff, placket, sleeves, pocket to colours of the buttons. To guarantee a perfect fit, we have four options in the website itself. First one is an algorithm called “PRO-FIT”. Customer needs to answer 5 simple questions and measurement will be fetched based on the answers. Another option is a travelling stylist. People can book an appointment with our stylist who will go to the spot to get the measurement. Also we have option for sending a well fit shirt to us so that we will copy the measurement and send it back to them. The last option is a guideline for taking measurement of a shirt which is simple and can be executed by anyone. Apart from all other online players we have come up with an added advantage of ordering “Free Fabric samples”. Customer can choose 5 fabrics which will be sent to them as small swatches for free. The product will be delivered within 7-10 days once they place the order. We do free shipping across India.
What made you start your start-up and what problem does it solve?
Ill fitted shirts were always a problem I had faced leading me to start this company. I used to alter the ready made shirts after purchase, still it wouldn’t give me the kind of satisfaction I was looking for. E-commerce is what the future is so we developed a platform by integrating modern technologies.
Tell us about yourself, your previous jobs/ventures? What were you doing before this start-up?
I was born and brought up in a small village called Kelakam in Kannur district. I have always had the passion for business since childhood, so I did my bachelors in Business Administration, joined for Master Degree and embarked on my first venture. I had worked in India and abroad in various roles. However I always foresaw myself as an entrepreneur even while working in various jobs.
Where is your start-up based out of? Why do you think that is the best place for you?
We are based in Cochin, the financial capital of Kerala. This is one of the best places for a start-up especially us, because we do not have much competition here. Since we are the first entrants we will be able to study the market and make better strategies.
As a start-up founder, what are you paranoid about? What keeps you awake at night?
The enormous opportunities that is in front of me. What is the next step we need to adopt for reaching out to more customers. This thought keeps me up most of the time.
Who are your competitions and how are you better than them?
Our offline competition is from “Raymond” and “Linen Club”. These brands do not have an online platform for customized shirts. Hence we do not get direct online competition from them. Also we fare better with our low pricing and high quality fabrics.
We expect a double digit growth in near future.
How hard is it to have a work-life balance as a start-up founder and how do you manage it?
As a start-up founder it’s really challenging to balance the work-life. Most of the time I need to manage multiple tasks. Before stepping in to business, I had a set time for sleeping and other tasks but now due to the work load late night sleep has become a norm.
For me business is a game which should run smoothly even in the absence of its founder. Strictly following that I have made my team self-sufficient to handle the tasks without interventions. We have a cloud software for accounting, which helps us to access the work file or to pull reports from anywhere in the world. We get to know the status of our inventory round the clock. So if something goes out of stock someone from our team can remove that item from the website immediately. Even though I sleep late at night, I try to catch sleep for sufficient duration which keeps me fresh throughout the day.
Have you raised funding? If yes, then we would like to know the details. If no then please tell us if you’re looking to raise?
We are self-funded and looking to raise funds now.
What’s the biggest misconception people have about you? Why do they have that? What’s the reality?
Custom made shirts is not a new concept but for us it is not that familiar. So most of the time people are comparing it with ready-made shirts. Custom made & made to measure shirts consume time for its production and can’t be produced in bulk so the cost of production varies. Still we are able to sell most of our shirts in the range of branded ready to wear shirts.
What gets you excited about this company?
When we introduce the concept to a group of people and they are welcome the idea with a wow! Expression. This gets me excited always.
Tell us how a day in your life looks like? Your schedule for a day right from the time you get up till you hit the bed at night.
The day starts with a coffee and newspaper followed by breakfast. My duty starts with checking emails and order management. Website orders will be prioritized first and assigned for production. If any products are ready to dispatch, will make sure the quality check is done.
The second task is attending any client meetings as per the schedule. Before the meetings we will analyse the client requirement especially if it’s for a wedding, we will foresee their budget and plan accordingly. It will help us to suggest the best options for them.
Later by evening we have a team meeting to discuss the tasks done for the day and the plan for the next day followed by checking the accounts. I find time to play badminton at least an hour. That is the last main activity of the day which will be followed by dinner before going to bed.
Tell us about your team and how did you meet each other?
We are a team of 7 members. Our Chief Marketing officer Mr. George Parakka and myself were working in Dubai with the same company for almost 2 years. One day I discussed with him about the concept and he was interested. He was also planning to relocate to India that time which eventually made us come together. Mr. Blesson, software developer is our Chief Technical Officer taking care of all the technical tasks. We have two people in the production wing, one person for marketing and one Graphic Designer.
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