Jones Apparel Group is a $3 billion company, whose brands include Nine West, Gloria Vanderbilt, AK Jeans and more. While 80% of the sourcing for its $800 million  Jones Jeanswear Group is in jeans, the remaining 20% is for women’s tops. Within the top section, of which Vikram Rawal, Director of Production, is the head, India scores high with 80% share in total business. “Ladies blouses are a strong category from India and with the type of value addition that Indian exporters can do, the country is certainly a major sourcing destination for us,” says Vikram. Sourcing from India for the past 10 years, the Division is doing business worth  $85 million from the country of which 80% is in tops. He expects to increase India sourcing by 25 percent according to a story in Apparel Resources.

Vikram’s division is sourcing a major chunk in woven tops, mostly working with exporters from the Delhi-NCR region.  The division also sources some knitwear for its Erika and Energie brands. The quantities which the company offers is good – for brands the average quantities are 5,000 – 7,000 pieces per style and for private labels they are between 20,000 – 40,000 pieces with some orders as high as 200,000 pieces.