AURORA: How did Nishat, the fashion brand, start?

NAZ MANSHA: My husband was running the Nishat Mill, established just after the Partition by his father. I started working in 1989. In those days, everything was based in Faisalabad, but I set up a separate unit in Lahore and started working on home textiles – mainly bed linens.

A: When did you transition into fabrics for fashion?

NM: In 1994. We had the mills, we had the back processing and we had the fabrics. So, I started printing fabrics for womenswear. Initially, I was only selling by the yard and then gradually I went into stitched fabrics for women. From there, I started adding a few accessories, and here we are today. It has been a very fulfilling journey. Initially, I was ambitious and I wanted to have only women working with me. Unfortunately, this proved to be impractical in those days. There were several constraints that made it impractical for women to work on the factory floors, on the machines, on cropping and finishing.

Today, it gives me a lot of satisfaction that we have more women working on the floors and to see how their profiles have changed. They used to be very shy and would not look you in the eye. Today, they come in smartly dressed and confident. They are proud to be contributing and adding to their household incomes. This gives me a lot of satisfaction, even more perhaps than the fact that Nishat is in a very good market position. I am selling both locally and internationally. I am seeing my ‘baby’ going forward and growing up.

A: Has the increase in the number of women willing to join you over the years been significant?

NM: Definitely, and this is very encouraging for me. The work environment is good; they are comfortable and no harassment is tolerated. This is very important; as a country, we are way behind in terms of the number of women who contribute to the economy. I have put standing instructions in place that whenever there is a vacancy, the first preference should be given to women at any level. Women are very competent – there is no doubt about that, but there is a lack of opportunity and we must try and provide those opportunities.

A: Why did you start with bed linen?

NM: At the time we were only exporting. Then, a lot of acquaintances would ask me to provide them with our bedsheets as they were not available in Pakistan. That was how we started and I opened my first shop. However, I soon realised that the local demand for bed linens was not that big, and that made me diversify into fashion. We still do home linens, but mainly for export – although I keep a small selection in my shops. The majority now is women’s fashion and accessories.

A: Nishat has diversified over the years into many other areas. It may be known as a premier textile company, but has the Group been involved in many different ventures?

NM: Yes. We are into banking, power plants, cement, car manufacturing, insurance, as well as hospitality. The businesses are headed by different members of the family; it’s between my sons and our daughters-in-law, everyone has their job cut out, and we all have our profit centres. We don’t interfere in each other’s businesses. Everyone does their part of the work independently, but we are under one umbrella. We work well as a group.

A: The Group is also into corporate farming.

NM: Agriculture is very important. We are building concrete jungles in our cities and eating up our farmland. Food security is so important and we are not paying attention to this at all.

A: In farming, are you mainly into dairy?

NM: We are into milk, but we also grow wheat, rice and corn.

A: Are your hotels part of a wider expansion?

NM: We are looking to expand; you have to keep the ball bouncing. We have a hotel in London, and two in Lahore. One is a boutique hotel in Gulberg and the other is attached to the Emporium Mall. That’s a bigger one than the boutique hotel in Gulberg.

A: Are they all branded under the name Nishat?

NM: In Lahore, yes. However, the one in London is the St James’ Hotel because it used to be the St James’ Club and we wanted to retain the name.

A: Where did the name Nishat originate from?

NM: I am not sure. My father-in-law named the first mill Nishat and soon after the area around the mill became known as Nishatabad, and it has carried on since then.

A: How difficult is it to run a successful business, given the highs and lows of the economy?

NM: It is an uphill task for anyone working in Pakistan. We have to face many challenges, and we have to put in that much more effort to make things work.

A: Since you launched Nishat, a great many other textile houses and then brands have sprung up, and now another phenomenon is the multitude of smaller brands that market themselves online, mainly through Instagram. How tough has the competition been?

NM: Competition is very healthy and drives everyone. Sometimes one does feel that the markets are flooded with choices for customers. My shop was the first purpose-built one to sell this product and Nishat is known for the quality of its fabrics. I have never compromised on quality and regardless of where the prices of raw materials are going, we will shrink our margins, but I have never compromised on quality, and I hope to continue this way.

A: Nishat is one of the big fashion brands that offers its customers flexibility without forcing them to buy a ‘three-piece suit’.

NM: No one else is offering this, but it is very tricky.

A: Tricky? How so?

NM: Because you end up with mismatched leftover stock. However, it is a service I am happy to provide. You have to give people options. This was how one bought clothes in the old days; no one was forced to buy a three-piece suit. That is an edge we have, and I intend to continue with it.

A: Do your future plans include expanding into different product ranges as many of the other big fashion retailers are doing?

NM: I want to focus on my core products and improve on those. It is nice to have additions, but it is also difficult to control quality when you outsource – and without the quality, they will not last.

A: Do you work with a creative department?

NM: We have a design team for our fabrics, another for ready-to-wear and yet another for luxury wear. So different teams for different categories.

A: Is it difficult to find people with the inclination and the talent to do this

NM: Yes and no. We employ people on a three-month probation period and some don’t make it, although most of them do. In fact, some of my team members have been here since the very beginning, and more or less everyone has been with me for at least eight years. Women especially, even after they marry, if they live in Lahore and their families allow them, want to come back to work. We have a small childcare centre, so they can bring their children there before they start school. I think of everyone here as my extended family. I have an open-door policy and anyone is free to come to my office if they have a question or a concern. We try to keep it very friendly and open.

A: What proportion of your sales are brick-and-mortar retail and how much is done online?

NM: About 20% of our sales are online and we have opened warehouses in Houston and Dubai. We have several outlets in the UAE, although a lot of sales happen offline. I think people in Pakistan still prefer to go, see and feel what they are buying. But yes, online is the future, but more so in first world countries. In Pakistan, shopping is entertainment for many women, but online is growing.

A: Do you provide a different range of clothes in the UAE, compared to what is available in Pakistan?

NM: In the UAE, I have a product called the fustaan which is a type of long kaftan and it is something Emirati women like to wear a lot. Otherwise, the range is more or less the same as in Pakistan. In the UAE, our sales online and offline are also more or less the same.

A: How important are Pakistan’s second-tier cities in terms of your retail presence?

NM: They are very important. We do good sales in those cities and we also receive a lot of orders online from there. Lahore, Islamabad and Karachi are so heavily populated, and we have to encourage and develop our secondary cities and provide them with better facilities so that the people living there don’t have to move to the big cities to find employment.

A: Given the current economic pressures, are you anticipating a slowdown in sales?

NM: In the past, we used to have a summer and a winter sale. Now every brand is having a sale almost all the time. The reason is that they want to liquidate their stock – you mark things down and they become more affordable. But this has to be monitored very carefully because every time you mark something down, you dilute your margins. This trend has developed across all brands and everyone is continuously having mini sales, which was never the case before.

A: The textile industry seems to be facing repeated difficulties and even more so now given the rising cost of living and soaring electricity prices. What is your view on this?

NM: We are growing, but it is difficult because one does not want to outprice oneself, and if we shrink our margins, it becomes a challenge to meet expenses and overheads. It is a question of constantly juggling; not just to stay afloat, but staying in the green. But we are meeting the challenge, and we hope that by growing overseas we will be able to meet our costs because the advantage of online is that there are no overheads involved as such. In Pakistan, apart from the cost of electricity, one has to have one’s own generator; we cannot just rely on WAPDA for electricity. I don’t want to be political but why are our governments never business-friendly? They don’t encourage people to go into business; no one can sustain themselves with these costs. It is mind-boggling why we can’t be a business-friendly country. Leave foreign investment aside, even for our own people it takes months to get permission to do something; by then, whatever the initial feasibility, the costs have gone somewhere else. Look at where Bangladesh is now, they are a much younger country than we are. Yet, Pakistan is known for its textiles, an industry that gives so much employment. I am not even going to talk about India; they are way above our reach. But we have to move on. Just saying there is corruption is not good enough. Yes, there is, but we have to get on with things and not let this block everything else. We can so easily do better than we are doing.

A: Do you think that the economic situation we are currently facing is among the worst we have seen?

NM: Yes and that is not just my opinion. We have never seen such inflation. The middle class is totally devastated. I don’t think that in my lifetime I have seen such inflation. I don’t know how things are going to get better. Loans are not a solution; you have to repay them.

Naz Mansha was in conversation with Mariam Ali Baig.

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