'Pakistan should develop globally-recognized brand names,' International

Business Head, SEFAM

Zain Aziz is a young entrepreneur and the mind behind Bareeze Man-one of Pakistan's biggest
clothing brands for men. He is the label's creative director and International Business Head of
SEFAM Textiles. The 28 years' old is the son of Seema Aziz who is the co-founder of SEFAM
Textiles and owner of Bareeze.

Zain received his Master's degree in Mechanical Engineering (Robotics) from Imperial College
London in 2007. On his return to Pakistan, Aziz-who always had a well developed sense of
aesthetics-decided to set up a brand that would bring men's fashion in Pakistan at par with the
international style and quality.

During the meeting at Sefam's Headquarters in Lahore, the BR Research team was also joined by
Seema for a little while, who related the history behind Bareeze's establishment.

Following is a brief excerpt of the conversation that took place during the sit-down with the
enigmatic mother-son team.

Bareeze: The story

Seema Aziz and her brother, who together launched the Company 28 years ago, wanted to prove
that the embroidered fabric produced within Pakistan could be at par with the world's best. At
that time, their family owned a small embroidery unit which produced material for other vendors.
But, when the brother-sister duo came up with the idea to set up its own retail store with high-
end embroidered cloth which could be bought straight off the shelf, they were laughed at.

"When we started our very first shop in Shadman, our neighbouring shopkeepers were taken
aback by our high pricing. Everyone said it was a failure waiting to happen and that nobody
would buy from us if we continued to tout our fabric exclusively as "made in Pakistan".

But without any formal design training, and with no equipment other than their father's two
Swiss-made embroidery machines, she and her brother set out to prove everyone wrong. And the
rest, as they say, is history.

Today Bareeze, which operates under the Sefam umbrella has 450 points of sales across the
country and is quite interestingly amongst the top three fashion and apparel retailers who account
for 50 percent of the GST collected from the sector.

Value addition in branding

The model for large composite mills traditionally has been that they mass produce, mass export
and then have a small brand-name retail presence in the larger cities of the country. But, we have
seen that trend is rapidly changing.

With the advent of numerous clothing labels and eponymous designer brands, the brand wars
within Pakistan are heating up, and Bareeze finds itself in the middle of the whirlwind. However,
both Seema and Zain feel that this war should extend beyond the home turf and that it should be
Pakistani brands-instead of simply un-branded RMG's of Pakistani origin-that find global
markets to tap into.

"The battle cry for the entire sector these past few years has been to divert to the production of
value-added textiles, which can fetch higher prices in the markets. But, Pakistani textiles still
remain largely unbranded and are sold to big-name retailers who buy cheap but sell at a
premium", says Zain.

"And despite tremendous export potential, Pakistan's textile industry will continue to remain at
the lower end of value addition until we develop brand names that have the sort of global
recognition which can command the attention of the international buyer," Seema adds.

"The only way you can do that is to commit yourself to a design philosophy, forget about
targeting just the niches and invest in branding-which is the most lucrative of value-additions,"
says Zain. "For instance at Bareeze, we consider ourselves to be a design house which happens
to manufacture instead of the other way around, and the global ventures we are planning will
hinge on that particular branding philosophy," he continues.

Plans for expansion

Expanding further on those plans, Zain says Sefam has their eyes all set on Africa as their next
pit-stop. "We already have retail presence in the Middle East, North America and Europe and we
are, of course, looking to further increase our retail footprint there, but what we're really excited
about is Africa. We wish to open a couple of stores in that continent by the start of the next year
because I've found that it is really under served, and there's a lot of ground for us to cover," he
says.

Sefam intends to tap the appetite for Western clothing in the African markets through their well-
known Leisure Club label while demand for loose fabric will be met through both formal and
informal fabric brands. "The African wrap is made up of seven meters of cloth and there is great
demand for printed designer fabric in that region, so that is another aspect we will specifically
target," adds Seema.

Additionally, organic growth at home in Pakistan will continue at the same time. "We have
launched an average of two new brands in the local market during the last few years and let me
tell you, we still have market segments to cover," says Zain.

"For instance, we recently launched our new brand 'Super Squad' which specifically targets pre-
teens (age bracket 6-12), because we found out that we were losing consumers of Minnie Minors
beyond the age of six and between our Leisure Club offerings and the Minnie Minor range, lay a
significant age segment that no other brand in the business was specifically targeting," relates
Zain.

Cannibalization between brands

Anyone who has ever shopped at a Bareeze outlet will know that the stores have a lot of brands
that seemingly cater to the same age group and that there is a lot of crossing over between them.
Zain explains the reason:

"Basically, we sometimes have multiple brands catering to the same socio-economic
demographic but all the labels essentially have different personalities. For instance, someone
who buys a kurta from 'Rung Ja' might be the same age as someone who buys a kurta from
'Working Woman', but they are completely polar opposite in personalities."

"But, to all effect we encourage the competition between the labels," he continues.

"Initially, when a number of brands used to be vying for consumer attention within a single retail
space, there was a lot of unhealthy competition about who will get more visibility and shelf-
space, but now we have changed our model and the plan is for every brand to have their own
individual retail outlet. So, with every label essentially being a separate business unit, it makes
more sense that way," Zain explains

"This helps all the brands remain true to their mandate which is: Do the best you can with the
money you get. And in the process if you are killing another company label fair and square-then
so be it," he says.

Growing appetite in smaller cities

One thing that I have learned from this business is that the appetite for high-end apparel and
textiles is rampant in the country-cropping up in places you would never imagine, says Zain.

"Demand in places like Mandi Bahauddin and Swat is unbelievable and with the rising middle
classes and their disposable incomes, the destinations for expansions abound across the country,"
he continues.

"But, one thing that hampers us making informed choices about where to open next is the lack of
market information. With everything undocumented, there is no way we can determine the size
of the market-or our share in it for that matter," chirps in Seema.

"It also makes venturing into new geographical markets somewhat of a necessary evil. We
venture into new areas with a sense of foreboding and uncertainty-we are not always sure that we
will have sustained demand for our product and if yes than what particular type of product will
sell more than the other. If it doesn't work, we sustain the loss, but, if it does, the rest of our
competitors soon follow suit. So, it's a price we have to pay in the name of innovation and
expansion," she says.