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Business Summary
Founded: 2006 by Jennifer Bharti, 27, designer and owner of Koi
Incorporated: 2007
Home base: Toronto
The products: upscale women's swimwear combining high fashion with comfort and function; glamorous separates (sarongs, tunics, dresses) to compliment the swimwear; prices range from $175 to $250 retail ($75 to $110 wholesale). Bharti's designs are usually intricate with extra details such as belts, buckles, lace and studs.
Target market: women from 18 to mid-forties looking for fashionable resort and cruise wear.
Distribution: Bharti does the wholesaling herself with part-time help from her sister Shannon, who works for American Apparel in L.A. The swimwear is currently carried by two high end retailers in Toronto (both in Yorkville), two retailers in Florida and as direct sales online from Koi's website.
Revenue: Sales for Koi in its first year were a modest $15,000; in the second year, sales increased to $20,000. Bharti wants to gross six figures in sales within five years, but realizes she needs strategy and a plan to get there. She says she has a reasonable profit margin. She's planning to drop most of the separates for her next collection (too fussy and expensive to produce) to focus mainly on the swimwear.
Goals: To build the Koi brand throughout North America and hit six figures in sales within the next five years. Her main focus is in developing the wholesale side of her sales. Bharti says it would be a dream come true to see Koi swimsuits in the window at Barney's.
Biography: Bharti and her sister opened family-backed fashion retail shops in Windsor while still in high school. Bharti ran the shoe boutique while pursuing a full-time degree in health sciences at Western, juggling exams with trade shows. She managed with the kind understanding of professors who admired her entrepreneurial spirit, but her heart was in fashion. The shops eventually closed with the decline in the Windsor economy.
After graduation, Bharti went to work in Toronto as a representative in the wholesale fashion trade. She was inspired to start her own line when couldn't find a swimsuit she liked while visiting her sister in L.A. Bharti quit her job and started Koi with her own savings and the support of family and her partner, now husband, who encouraged her.
Bharti has no fashion design training but says she's always been creative. She hired a pattern maker at the beginning and learned from him. She now does all the designs herself.
Biggest challenges
Manufacturing: Koi is still stuck in the start-up stage. Bharti produces the initial samples using a basic single needle sewing machine in her home workshop. She then brings them to a small Toronto manufacturing company (a husband and wife team with three or four people working out of their basement) that has skilled sewers who produce the proper samples on specialized machines for wholesale.
The same manufacturing company also makes the swimwear orders but it isn't big enough for large orders or rush requests. Also, if her manufacturer is busy, she's shunted at the back of the line because her volume is small. When that happens, she can't meet her deadline for orders — critical in the swimsuit business.
She realizes that if she was to get a big order from a U.S. retailer that she might miss the opportunity. However, that big order might also push her. If her present manufacturer couldn't handle it, she might be able to take that order to bigger manufacturer. She says she'll do whatever it takes to fill an order, even if she takes a loss.
Bharti has met with Phantom in Montreal about possibly moving manufacturing there, but hasn't decided yet. She would like be manufacturing overseas within the next five years because of the lower manufacturing costs. Bharti is half Chinese so she has an advantage in that she can speak Chinese if she goes to China for manufacturing.
