Sheela Kochouseph chose to beat her own path to success by introducing in Kerala top quality undergarments.
The Rs.100 crore-worth V-Star Creations, a well-known brand in Kerala and other parts of the country, is today associated with stylish spread of inner wears or lingerie. But the company started its journey in 1995 by making Indian dresses like salwar kameezes as the trend was just starting off in the state. Most women wanted “less flashy designs” than those available in the market at that time.
It was five years later, when Mrs. Kochouseph, Founder and Managing Director of the company, was asked at a dealer’s conference, why she could not branch into innerwear as there was a shortage of quality brands in Kerala, that she ventured into the production of innerwear for women, men and children. And the rest, they say, is history. V-Star soon emerged as the leading inner wear brand in South India and Middle East.
It was no easy path that Mrs. Sheela, who hails from a prominent business family, tread turning her passion into a profitable venture. Her husband, Mr. Kochouseph Chittilapilly, owns the V-Star Group. When Mrs. Sheela expressed a desire to start up on her own, her husband offered her an empty office on rent. But she had to raise her own funds with the help of a bank loan.
Making products from scratch, Mrs. Sheela started off with 10 people, including a pattern maker, a cutter, a merchandiser, and others relevant to the business she wanted to start.
In the beginning, whatever profit the company made was pumped back into the business. Mrs. Sheela chose a smart and viable business model to take it forward in a state like Kerala that was then rife with strikes and employee issues.
An astute business woman, Mrs. Sheela adopted a unique model of women empowerment from the word go. She outsourced the stitching of all the lingerie to nuns in convents. They could provide livelihoods to women from under-privileged families. These women, who had never even seen a sewing machine before, were trained. Today, the company has 16 units with more than 1,000 women working on their products.
Finding skilled workers to carry out embroidery and tailoring was always a challenge that Mrs. Sheela faced. Initially, she found sourcing raw material, especially the fabric, quite a challenge.
When she entered the inner garments business, Mrs. Sheela procured some high-quality brassieres and panties from Mumbai, removed the stitches and started learning how to make the products from scratch as she did not have a pattern maker who knew the product.
By offering stylish inner wears for women, men and children, V-Star quickly emerged as the leading inner wear brand in South India and the Middle East. The company has successfully integrated diverse business processes, services and products, unified by a common vision – Enriching lifestyles. V-Star has always felt the pulse of the market; welcoming change and reinventing itself for the challenges within a dynamic society and marketplace.
The company applies exacting standards of innovation, design and service throughout the journey from its origin as a single fibre of cotton, all the way to its culmination as an exhilarating and satisfying shopping experience for its customers. V-Star catalogues a wide range of inner wears such as Bra, Panty, Camisoles, Shapewears, Vests, Briefs, Trunks, Active wears and Bloomers.
Recently, V-Star has expanded its lifestyle product range by introducing Leggings, Printed Leggings, Capri Leggings, Printed Capris, T-shirts, Shorts, Knitted shorts, Track pants Nightwear, Lounge Pant, Sleep Pant and Comfy Blouse
The company today has exclusive brand outlets in Kochi, Thrissur, Malappuram, Calicut, Thodupuzha, Kottayam, Kollam, Trivandrum and Bangalore. V-Star EBO’s showcases a plethora of innerwear and lifestyle products and offers a world-class shopping experience for customers who like to shop in tune with the latest fashion styles.
V-Star manufactures more than 20 lakhs of inner wears and outer wears every month for women, men and children. Employing more than 200 direct employees and more than 1,000 indirect employees, the brand has 50 distributors and 4,500 dealers in South India alone. V-Star has been awarded RVA-accredited ISO 9001: 2015 certification, the first in Kerala’s garment industry to win this coveted recognition.
Mrs. Sheela’s sees the company becoming a pan-Indian brand and being exported to other parts of the globe as well.
