‘Classic Knitwear and Guardian: A perfect fit?’– Case Analysis
Group 2: Abhishek Magdum, Ganesh Babu, Gariki Ajay Kumar, Hari Balaji VS, Ritika Arora, Shubhangi Sudhakaran

This Document analyses the Long Term Marketing strategy and Financial impact of the Classic Knitwear’s decision to launch a new line of insect repellent clothes in collaboration with Guardian Company.

5C analysis: 1. Company:
   Classic Knitwear, a publicly traded company operates in the $24.5 billion category of non-fashion casual knit wear. 2005 Classic revenues- $550 million, gross margin 18%, compared to average gross margin of leading branded product manufacturers- 30-40% Revenue break-up: o Sale to wholesalers who in turn supplied to screen print channels consisted 75% of Classic’s revenues, #2 player in this market with 16.5% share, B&B was #1 player with 23.6% share o 25% of Classic’s sales came from mass-retail channels which constituted only about 1% of private-label segment.  Currently enjoys moderate cost advantage through economies of scale & high volume-low SKU production runs. Product innovation paramount to show superior performance to stake holders.

2. Competitor:
  Branded Side Competitors: JamesBrands ($4.5 bn revenue), Flower Knit ($1.25 bn revenue), TopTops Division ($630 mn revenue), Unbranded Side Competitor: B&B Activewear ($590 mn revenue),

3. Collaborator:
 Guardian is an established manufacturer of insect repellents. Recently developed patented insect repellent clothing lasting through 70 washes. Awareness of Guardian was 50% among target group. 95% of buyers had positive perceptions about brand.

4. Context:  Manufacturing efficiency improvisation was viewed as the unsustainable solution to drive margins

 Company was looking for ways to Improve the Gross Margin to bring it to comparable level to branded cloth makers

5. Customer: 