FINAL REPORT

IDEAS BY GUL AHMED

Faiza Dar
Assistant Professor
National University of
Computer and Emerging Sciences

Aena Maryam, Ifrah Nadeem,

Mahnoor Barlas, Neha Akram
Ramsha Ijaz and Zara Ahmad
26 April, 2016

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Summary........................................................................1
Introduction....................................................................2
Background
Purpose
Scope
Research Questions
Report Organization
Research and Analysis...................................................4
Methodology
Findings
Conclusions & Recommendations................................. 6
References...................................................................... 7
Appendix 1: Survey questions
Appendix 2: Client proposal
Appendix 3: PowerPoint slides

ABSTRACT
This report focuses on the popularity of Ideas by Gul Ahmed among the public and also on the
customers reviews as to why this brand is considered among one of the top brands in textile
industry of Pakistan. During our research, we found out that Gul Ahmed has been an exporter of
textiles for the past many years and with its vast experience, reach and nationwide goodwill, the
company has developed an extensive chain of stores across the country, aiming to bring its
customers an unbeatable shopping experience now having more than 40 nationwide outlets.
Ideas by Gul Ahmed is the retail venture of Gul Ahmed Textile Mills Ltd . and is globally
synonymous as a name with quality, innovation & reliability following with endless customer
satisfaction. Envisioning the needs of customers and the growing trend towards the retail
industry, the company decided to diversify into the retail sector in 2003. In this report, we
conducted multiple surveys with the customers questioning about the quality of fabrics, prints,
prices and services of the company. In addition to this, interviews with the staff and manager of
the company were also recorded in order to get a better understanding of the background of the
company. Based on our research and analysis, it can be concluded that Ideas by Gul Ahmed
excels every other clothing brand because of its unparalleled innovative collections, no
compromise on quality rule, exquisite designs and customer satisfaction.

INTRODUCTION
Over the past few decades, Gul Ahmed has emerged as a leading clothing brand, enjoying a very
prominent and top position in the fabric industry of Pakistan. Its radiant color schemes, trendy
outfits, beautiful designs, high quality of cloth enable it to become a high market for all the
shopaholics. For many, it is a perfect blend of art and design. Based on its tradition of facilitating
quality with style, it offers an elegant and diverse product array from fashion fabrics, and
footwear and accessories to home textiles with an objective to bring its valued customers a
complete, unbeatable and enjoyable shopping experience. It presently has a network of more
than 40 stores stretched nationwide in the prime cities and commercial hubs.

Items offered by Gul Ahmed

Womens wear includes unstitched fabric, formal, stitched suits, kurtis, sweaters, shawl,
trousers, tights, bags, and shoes.
Mens Collection include shalwar kameez, outwear, kurta, formal shirts, casual shirts, bottoms,
fabric, T-shirts and polos.
Household items include bridal sets, bedding sets, duet cover sets, bedding basics, blanket
and throws, place mats, cushion covers, towels, bathrobes.
Yearly Collections:

Summer Collection Volume 1

Summer Collection Volume 2
Lamis Digital Silk Collection 2016
Tani Yarn Dyed Collection
Winter Collection
Black and White Collection
Midsummer Cambric
Summer Collection Volume 3
Festive Collection

Background
Gul Ahmed Group
The Pakistani company Gul Ahmed Group includes Gul Ahmed
Textile Mills, Gul Ahmed Energy and Habib Metropolitan
Bank. Ideas by Gul Ahmed is a chain of retail outlets recently
founded. The group's other concerns go by the name of
Swisstex Chemicals (Private) Limited, which is a large
chemical distribution company that has the sole rights for
supplying Ciba Specialty Chemicals in Pakistan. The group has invested in outsourcing
information technology with Arwen Technologies.[2]
Trading in textiles was begun by The Gul Ahmed Group in the early 20 th century. In 1953, the
group decided to enter the field of manufacturing under the name Gul Ahmed Textile Mills
Limited, and was incorporated as a privately limited company. In 1972, it was listed on the
Karachi Stock Exchange. Since then, the company has made rapid progress and is currently one
of the leading composite textile houses in the world.
Gul Ahmed Textile Mills Limited
The mill is presently a composite unit with an installed capacity of 130,000 spindles, 250 wide
width air jet looms, 90 Sulzers, 297 conventional looms, and a state-of-the-art processing and
finishing unit.
Ideas by Gul Ahmed is the retail venture of Gul Ahmed Textile Mills. The company decided to
diversify into the country's retail sector in 2003. Ideas offers a range of home textiles and
furnishings for the bedroom, kitchen and bathroom, as well as men's and women's apparel.[4] It
also provides in-house monogramming, embroidery and tailor-made services. Clifton area of
Karachi is the place where the Ideas flagship store is located.

Group companies

Gul Ahmed International Limited

GTM Europe Limited

Gul Ahmed Textile Mills Limited

Gul Ahmed Energy

Habib Metropolitan Bank

Purpose
Gul Ahmed is the first priority of most customers. Its sales exceed that of any other brand owing
to its diverse range of designs, its fine cloth, and its effective marketing and advertising. Its
beautiful choice of colors and its artistic cuts have no match.
Gul Ahmeds designs are the primary reason for its huge success. Gul Ahmed was the initiator of
Digital Print Collection which is now available at every other store. Every season, they
welcome their customers with a new collection of trendy designs and styles. Thus they can
rightfully be called as the Trend Setters of Pakistan.
By providing a varied collection of household items and clothes, it attracts a manifold of
customers. Its high standard of fabric makes it a favorable option for the people. Its fabric fulfils
all sorts of seasonal requirements by offering fine cloth for summers and thick warm fabric for
the winters.

Scope
The scope of survey is to inform the people about the popularity of Gul Ahmed. For this purpose,
we visited its website on internet and also the franchise, situated in City Tower at Lahore. While
viewing the website, the buzz of Gul Ahmeds popularity was clearly evident through the likes of
the customers. Based on survey that was being conducted by our team, major reason for
preferring Gul Ahmed is in fact the brand name. Moreover, its fine fabric material and prints also
add to the brands worth in the market. The team also had a brief look at the store where people
were content with the stuff and varieties but for them the only issue is the unreasonable prices.
However, during sales a vast increase is seen in the percentage of customers, leading to a good
amount of profit for the brand.

Limitations
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Shortage of time.
Lack of proper resources.
Lack of practice.
Lack of cooperation.
Exams are imminent

RESEARCH AND ANALYSIS

It has been already mentioned that we conducted a survey at Gul Ahmeds store. Based on the
statistics and on a brief survey with the customers along with the interview of the manager
several vague details became clear regarding the status and market value of the collections of
Gul Ahmed, the rising brand of the fabric industry. However, since everything has its pros and
cons, each brand and its products have some golden points and some shades as well.

Methodology
Before carrying out the whole research procedure for Gul Ahmed, the question was that What
makes Gul Ahmed among the top leading brands in the textile industry? The Goal of these
researches was to get a better perspective of the brands quality. So, based on a complete survey
with almost 5 to 6 customers, the interview with the manager of Gul Ahmeds city tower branch,
a questionnaire based on 5 questions with different reviews of several students of FAST NUCES,
Lahore Campus, the results which were being interpreted by the team was that the experience of
designers regarding prints and fabric is something not to be questioned about but the matter of
affordability is definitely an issue for the brand conscious public. While interviewing the
manager, she affirmed that Gul Ahmed is the leading brand and mentioned Saphire and Khaadi to
be its rivals in the fabric industry. Furthermore, she held the advertisements and magazines of
Gul Ahmed responsible for increasing the market value of the brand. According to her, Gul
Ahmed offers sale twice a year but during the sale seasons, there is an abrupt increase in the
profit of the brand and the manager was quite positive about the brands popularity on
international level that is if they exceed the branches to foreign countries which may happen any
time, soon. Not just on their website but also outside their store, people were mostly content with
the brands quality.
Goal of research: The goal of this research is to get a better perspective of the brands quality
and its drawbacks, which is definitely achieved through the facts gained through surveys done
and through various references gained on internet. Now, the question is that what really can
make the brand overcome its issues and how much would it add to the buyers list? And in
overcoming these issues would it become less appealing to the 1st class brand conscious lot of
the country?

Statistics
We went to Gul Ahmed to carry out a survey for our project. We interviewed the manager and
several customers. Other than that, we observed the shop as the customers came in and shopped.

From our study, we came up with a rough estimate and plotted some statistics. They are not
completely authentic as they are concluded from only a one day survey.

G-Ahmed's Sale Ratio

Others; 5% Shoes; 13%

Home Accessories; 32%

Bags; 10%

Clothes; 40%

Gul Ahmed is popular for its Lawn. Most customers are attracted to its clothes collection. Gil
Ahmed also sells a variety of other things. The graph above is a rough estimate of the
percentages of their things sold.

Sales Statistics in Different Seasons

50
45
40
35
30
Perscentage of sale 25
20
15
10
5
0

Summer

Spring

Winter

Other

Gul Ahmed launches its new collections in different seasons around the year. Its summer
collection is the most popular amongst customers. In general, people tend to buy more clothes in
summers. The graph above shows the sales statistics in different seasons.

Sales Percentage at Different hours of the Day

40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
Percentage

Time

The peak hours of shopping are in the evening. During the day, women are mostly busy with the
household chores while the young adults are busy with their studies or in their professional life.
So after 5:00 PM most people go for shopping.

Percentages of Type of Customers

Type of Customers

Percentage of Customers

A lot of people are undecided when they go for shopping. They visit the shop and if they like
something they do not buy instantaneously. Rather they plan on looking at other options and then
finally picking up the best option. Then there are those people who do not give a second thought
if they find the thing they are looking for. Still there those people who just visit the shops for fun.
They fall in the category of window shopping.

Popularity of Top Brands

Popularity percentage

30
25
20
15
10
5
0

Brands

Customers Feedback
50
45
40

Percentage

35

Very Bad

30

Bad

25

Satisfactory

20

Good

15

Excellent

10
5
0
Fabric

Price

Prints

Services

Category

The above graph shows the results of a small survey we carried out. The customers have rated
several categories.

CONCLUSION
Concluding from the interview of Manager of Ideas City Tower Branch, we see that Gul Ahmed
satisfies all its customers by providing them with the best clothing. It stands to be Pakistans No.
1 Brand in terms of ethnic designs, chic styles, and authentic fabric. Observing the fabric quality
at the store at firsthand, we observed its fine quality, exquisite designs, color amalgamation, and
comforting appearance. Gul Ahmed has a range of suits and designs not only for the younger
generation but for men and women of all ages and all sizes. Their unstitched collection is on
display in a neat and organized manner and welcomes the customers to browse through their
collection. Gul Ahmed is also well-known for its Home Accessories. According to the Manager
of Ideas, Gul Ahmed has only few rivals and based on our survey, all of them lag behind Ideas in
almost all terms of fashion sense and customer satisfaction. Hence, Gul Ahmed is the ultimate
Fashion Champion.
Viewing the Gul Ahmed website and catalogue, the display of prints and collections is
mesmerizing. Gul Ahmed Facebook page also has 1,512,888 likes, which shows its customer
popularity. From past magazines, we discovered that Gul Ahmed has always been innovative.
They release a creative form of collection every year to lure customers in, for instance, Summer
Vol. 2 2016 features Bandhani collection, and Summer Vol. 1 2015 features Safari collection. It
was also duly noted that Ideas releases their volumes foremost, and are therefore the trend setters
of Fashion Industry. In fact, other Lawn brands are often inspired from Gul Ahmeds Ideas, for
example, Digital Collection i-e, printing pictures on Lawn shirts was originally initiated by Ideas
in Summer Vol. 2 2011. Now, such digital prints are available at all Lawn markets.
Based on our survey, Gul Ahmed is the most recognized Lawn Brand of Pakistan Fashion
Industry for several reasons. Gul Ahmed proudly announces itself as Pakistan ki Pehchaan and
has most certainly earned that title depicting romance of prints and delicacy of embroideries. Gul
Ahmed leads in selling the biggest variety of fabric as well, ranging from Printed and
embroidered lawn to Soya Silk and Trencia Satin Silk fabrics. But this elegance and class comes

with a price; a price that a few consider expensive, and yet choose to overlook. Despite the high
rates, all of Gul Ahmeds customers are satisfied with what they have to offer.

REFERENCES
1. http://www.ideas.com.pk/site/Ideas/History.aspx
2. https://www.facebook.com/GulahmedFashion/timeline?ref=page_internal
3. https://www.gulahmedshop.com/

4. Jump up ^ "2010 Annual Report" (PDF). Gulahmed.com. Retrieved

2015-05-09.
5. Jump up ^ "Bloomberg Business". Businessweek.com. Retrieved 201505-09.
6. Jump up ^ "Fashion And You". Buchybaba. Retrieved 2015-08-15.
7. ^ Jump up to:
Machine.

a b

[1] Archived September 28, 2007, at the Wayback

8. Gul Ahmed official site

9. www.wikipedia.com
10.http://www.ideas.com.pk/