“The strongest action for a woman is to love herself, be herself, and shine amongst those who never believed she could”.
Dream catcher, Nidhi Yadav, the brain behind the Rs. 1-billion womenswear brand Aks can spot a trend a mile away and that’s her secret. Today, Nidhi Yadav owns AKS Clothing, a Rs 137 crore turnover women’s wear brand that she started in 2014 with Rs 3.5 lakh at her 2BHK home in Gurugram. Nidhi Yadav, a 25-year-old woman entrepreneur, who also mothers a seven-month-old baby, is the founder of AKS, a women’s ethnic clothing brand. Nidhi is a Computer Science graduate and before becoming an entrepreneur, she used to work at Deloitte. Read more to know about her success story.
Nidhi Yadav, a 25-year-old woman entrepreneur who worked at Deloitte, Hyderabad, quit her job. To make her dream true, she decided to go to Italy to pursue a one-year course in Fashion, Buying and Merchandising at Polimoda Fashion School Florence, situated in Italy. It was a turning point for her future without any doubt she took a quick decision, and for making a future in the fashion industry, she went to Italy, and now her company turnover is more than ₹137 crore. Her company name is ‘Aks‘ a women’s ethnic clothing brand.
Early Life – Nidhi Yadav
Nidhi was born in a lawyer family in Indore, M.P. She completed her studies in Indore in 2004. After completing her studies, she opted to work in Deloitte. Then realized that she was not happy with her work, so she decided to quit her job and pursued a one-year Fashion Buying and Merchandising course in Italy.
Nidhi’s love for fashion grew when she saw the Meryl Streep movie, “Devil Wears Prada”. Nidhi was asked a simple question during her year-end presentation, which changed the course of her life. “When was the last time you wanted to go to the office?”, was the question, to which she honestly replied, “Never”. Her mentors helped her realize what she really wanted to do in life.
Effect In Entrepreneurship Came From Zara
Nidhi’s entrepreneurship began in Gurugram. After she worked with a local fashion brand in Gurugram for three months, she moved back to Indore to get married, and soon became a mother. She recollects, “I told my husband even before our wedding that I didn’t want to do a 9-5 job. He encouraged me to work from home as it gave me more liberty”. Nidhi’s husband, Satpal Yadav, was working in Jabong at that time. Her Italian education made it easier for her to understand the dynamics of the fashion industry.
“I was not a fashion designer, but I knew what will sell. Although my family was shocked at first when I told them about starting up, they went on to support me.”
Nidhi did six months of research on the international fashion brand Zara and wanted to replicate its supply chain in India. She felt that there was a major gap in ethnic wear for women at that time. So, when she launched AKS, she made sure that it launched 15-29 new styles every two weeks. No other brand was doing it at that time. At present, AKS is having 150 new styles every month and a customer repeat rate of 35%. AKS designs are mostly trend-based unlike ZARA’s, which are picked from the runway. Nidhi says once sold out they don’t make the same designs again.
Her Initial Struggling Years
Nidhi launched AKS as an online brand. Priorly, Nidhi used to manage all the work of her business by herself. She introduced her products through Limeroad, Jabong, and Myntra as well. The delivery boy took products from her home. In the beginning, she brought her clothes from Jaipur with her husband. Three units of Jaipur agreed to produce her custom-made garments. Her daughter was seven months old when she launched her online site.
“I used to go for every photo shoot and try on every sample before production. We did the cataloguing, designing and sourcing ourselves. Our warehouse was our home,” Nidhi recounts fondly.
During the initial months, Nidhi and Satpal would travel to Jaipur every weekend with their infant daughter to source their materials. It was difficult to reach an agreement with the manufacturers in Jaipur. Nidhi told him that she needed only 25 pieces but the manufacturers agreed to the deal only if there were 200 pieces. But some of them were allowed to cherry-pick about 25 pieces of each design. As AKS grew, they started ordering 300 pieces.
At present, the company has a network of printing, dyeing, stitching and manufacturing units in Jaipur. They are also shifting their warehouse to Delhi. Nidhi has every reason to feel happy about her entrepreneurial journey so far, though she might just not want to settle where she is. She has always wanted to be a topper and it’s too early for her to rest on her laurels. Nidhi worked for approximately a year on her own before hiring her first employee. Nidhi managed everything on her own for about a year and a half. She did the packing and then taught her housekeeper how to do it.
Empowering Women
Empowering women is a big part of AKS’s values. Women entrepreneurs run nearly 50 per cent of the firms that AKS outsources work to.
“I always wanted to generate employment and contribute to society,” says Nidhi.
More than 50 percent of AKS’s employees and about 60 percent of its suppliers are women. While there is a wide belief that a woman’s career graph becomes stagnant after starting a family, Nidhi believes in the opposite. “Do it because your kids deserve a mother they can brag about,” she says. Nidhi was awarded the ‘Young Women Entrepreneur for Apparel Brand Start Up’ by Indian Women Convention & Women Leadership.
Aks – Business Model
Nidhi Yadav started her business with ₹3.5 lakh, and now she built ₹137 crores for women’s wear. In 2014, she established Yuvdhi Apparel as a sole proprietorship that will be turned into a private limited company after some time. Nidhi has carefully positioned her brand since the beginning. The emphasis has always been on ethnic wear and quick fashion, which means that new designs are released every 15 days or so.
In 2014 people were aware of online shopping, and that was the time her business rapidly grew. During pandemic times, she developed a mother-child line. Her crew consists of five tailors and a team of designers. Tailors work on respected designs and make sample items that will supply to the partner’s factories in Delhi and Jaipur. All the fabric is imported from Surat, Ahmedabad, and Jodhpur.
Nidhi Yadav Success
Indra Nooyi is her role model as of how beautifully she has juggled between her family and work and has managed to set milestones for working mothers anywhere across the globe.
For me, success is not limited to accomplishing business goals or achieving high growth. Inner happiness and satisfaction are the biggest ingredients of success for me that I subtly feel in my relationship with work and family.
Aks Clothing has clocked a turnover of Rs 137 crore, and its business continues to grow. It is one of the few businesses that has expanded despite the Covid-19 pandemic. In 2021, the company’s revenue is estimated to reach Rs 165 crore.
Nidhi wants to be the market leader in women’s fusion wear and to accomplish this mission the entire team of AKS is working day and night. High market penetration via MBOs and e-portals is a top strategy in this direction and they expect some really great results. According to Nidhi from government policies to technological advancements, the present business ecosystem is full of entrepreneurial opportunities for women. So, it is the best time to materialize plans and ideas very today because you can wait, but the market cannot.
Life is not short as long as you are moving in the right direction.
