Did you know that Amitabh Bachchan, Anil Kapoor and Mukesh Ambani have a connection with Radha Kapoor, the eldest daughter of Rana Kapoor, promoter founder & CEO of YES Bank? She is the lady who adds to the sartorial grace of these A-list Mumbaikars. Or, if we were to give you an introduction that will be music to the ears of this scion, it’s best to say that Kapoor is the woman behind DoIt Creations, her holding company to promote new business ventures.
?In India, the affluent who own clothes of high-end brands like DKNY or Giorgio Armani are hesitant to place their trust in the local dry cleaners. Left with no option at home, they are forced to carry these garments abroad where cleaning systems are way more reliable. As more global luxury apparel brands make inroads in India, this will give a rise to the demand for a sophisticated dry cleaning system,? she says.
After doing some research on Rs 5000 crore dry cleaning market in the country, Kapoor got in touch with Esther Lennaerts, chairperson of Pressto, a global player in high quality dry cleaning. Present in 22 countries with 500 stores, Pressto is a Spanish company headquartered in Madrid and has one of the largest dry cleaning retail business network in continental Europe.
In 2009, Kapoor completed her Bachelor of Fine Arts with a major in Communication Design at Parsons -The New School for Design, New York City. After getting an exclusive master franchise of Pressto in India in the same year, the first store was opened in 2009 in Juhu, Mumbai.
Prior to joining Parsons, she had already attended a one-year fine arts foundation course at Camberwell College, University of Arts in London. Her work skills include identity design, corporate design, package design, spatial design and branding.
?We did struggle in the beginning. One of the biggest challenge we faced was to get the right people to work for us,? she recalls. Since then, the franchise has grown to 12 stores with three in New Delhi and 9 in Mumbai. As per the model, there are two kinds of Pressto stores ? the mother store and the junior store. While the dry cleaning action happens in the mother store, the junior stores serve as a point of access for handling orders and deliveries.
To build credibility, the dry cleaning equipments are placed right inside the mother store so customers do not fret about what will happen to their clothes as in the case of local dry cleaners ? who – outsource the work to factories.
The process of dry cleaning here is as intricate as it can get. The moment a garment is handed over at the counter, it is carefully inspected for stains and irregularities and a label is attached mentioning among others, the directions provided by the customer. In step 2, small holes or loose hems are repaired by experts.
This is followed by stain removal where each stain is individually treated with specialised products. Next, a customised garment cleaning program is followed depending on the detail of fabric, colour and embellishments. After manual steam press, the garment goes through a final quality check.
Finally, each garment is packed on hangers or folded as per customers’ preference using innovative packaging material, designed to retain the shape and the freshness of the fabric. Also, as part of a special service called ‘2 hours express delivery’ a finished garment can be delivered within two hours.
For clean and press services the charges range from Rs 84-199, depending on the type of cloth. Besides, there are extra charges for alterations. Kapoor does not find the pricing too steep and shares that it’s just 10% more than what a local dry cleaner would charge.
After penetrating deeper in Delhi and Mumbai, Pressto is looking forward to enter Bengaluru and Hyderabad in near future. Also, there are plans to set shop in tier II cities. Besides film industry celebrities and corporate honchos, the company also has premier airlines, five-star hotels and high-end designer boutiques as clients.
According to Kapoor, malls can be another point of contact with the customers. Pressto is already present in one of the HyperCity stores in Malad, Mumbai.
DoIt Creations has also started a business of enhancing wall interiors by the name of BrandCanvas in partnership with one of India’s leading creative designers, Alok Nanda. The company is also planning to get into maintenance of high-end shoes and hand bags.