Siddhant Agarwal, 26, clinched two alliances last year. One was marital, the other, business.Agarwal is the vice-president for projects and acquisitions of Kolkata-based Rupa & Co, the innerwear manufacturer promoted by his grandfather PR Agarwal. Rupa signed a deal for super-premium global innerwear line of a Berkshire Hathaway company — Fruit Of The Loom Inc (FOL).This was Rs 1,100 crore Rupa’s second major foreign tie-up. In 2016, it acquired the licence for innerwear range of British brand FCUK in India.The premium and super-premium segments of the Indian innerwear market are likely to double in the next three years. ICICI Securities estimated the market to be worth Rs 24,000 crore, with mid-premium and premium segments making up 40% or about Rs 9,500 crore. This is expected to grow to Rs 47,000 crore by 2020, and the premium, mid-premium segment is expected to double, growing at 17-18% CAGR to Rs 20,000 crore by that time. Half of the market is in the unorganised sector. The premium and super-premium segments make up for 14% of men’s innerwear and 20% of women’s innerwear markets.Consumers of mass and economy innerwear are keen to upgrade. Bengaluru’s Page Industries grabbed 55% of the premium innerwear market with brand Jockey — via a licence from Jockey International. Page is also the licensee for Speedo in the super-premium category.Foreign players like Hanes, Polo and Tommy Hilfiger are jostling for the remaining space, as is Van Heusen from the Aditya Birla Group besides premium retailers like Marks & Spencers.Rupa also has competition closer at home. Two mid-market and economy inner-wear majors Dollar Industries and Lux Industries , both based in Kolkata , are also moving up the value chain Rupa has its own premium brand Macroman and Macrowoman. Lux had launched ONN in 2013 and Dollar launched Force NXT in 2015.“There is a key challenge of creating an image and spending on the brand, which will have to be taken on by anyone entering this segment,” says Bharat Chhoda of ICICI Securities, who tracks the sector.Brand Extensions Come April, Lux Industries will be launching premium socks along with innerwear and sleepwear under Virat Kohli-owned brand One8. Now, Lux will be hitching on to his brand appeal. It is trying an extension of its own premium offering ONN and may call the new brand ONN-One8.For Lux, Dollar and Rupa, the quick option to grab market share is to introduce more foreign or premium/super-premium brands. Dollar Industries is in an equal partnership with fashion brand Pepe Jeans Europe BV for premium range of innerwear, loungewear and sleepwear to be launched by March 2018.“Pepe Jeans is one of the leading players in the denim segment and has a strong brand pull in the trade as well as the market. We will now have access to Pepe Jeans distribution network too,” says Dollar’s manging director Vinod Kumar Gupta.A July report from broking firm Kotak Securities pegs the innerwear sector at Rs 59,000 crore by 2023. Research firm Technopak forecast it would touch Rs 74,000 crore by 2027.A Technopak study that Rupa commissioned also said the innerwear market has been signalling readiness for a premium innerwear international brand.Saket Todi, son of Lux chairman Ashok Todi, was instrumental in signing up with Kohli. “We waited to clinch the right deal as we wanted to achieve break even with sales,” he says. Todi, like Agarwal, is also the vice-president of his family-owned company.While ONN is sold in 12,000 multibrand outlets, ONN-One8 brand will also have access to Puma stores that Kohli’s One8 has tied up with.All the three Kolkata-based players concede they need partners to break into the big league and also to transcend their mass and economy market moorings.The Technopak report offered two alternatives; launching a green field premium brand and build it from scratch or tie up with established international brands. The second option was easier since premium brands launched earlier by these companies had limited success. ICICI’s Chhoda says the share in the premium market for innerwear for players like Rupa (1.3%, Rs 120 crore), Lux (1%, Rs 87 crore) and Dollar (less than 0.5%, Rs 36 crore) is very small and hence they can easily look to doubling their share in this segment.Rupa’s Agarwal points out that ensuring success for a home grown, super-premium brand would have been “tedious”. “Business sense prompted us to join hands with a brand with international appeal and a range ready to leverage the premium space.”