Fine Threads Apparels: Founding, Building, and Exiting a B2B Manufacturing Venture

Jai founded Fine Threads Apparels after leaving PwC, targeting the B2B apparel manufacturing market in eastern India. Before approaching any investors, he conducted structured primary research across three distinct stakeholder groups: retailers, labor recruiters, and machinery suppliers.

For retailers, he cold-called and cold-emailed major apparel chains to validate demand, understand order quantities, establish price points, and map their audit requirements. He cleared audit processes for two retailers, which required hiring specifically to meet their quality standards. For labor recruiters, he assessed workforce quality, availability, and going wage rates. For machinery suppliers, he evaluated the cost and availability of capital goods, including whether best-in-class technology could be sourced domestically.

He turned that research into a business plan structured like an investment memorandum: market sizing, competitor analysis, Porter's Five Forces, and a pro forma financial model. He used it to raise capital from friends, family, and industry contacts.

His first-year target was Reliance Trends, one of India's largest apparel retailers. He landed the account, and their demand matched the supply capacity he had built. The business was cash-flow positive but not consistently profit-positive, and the capital-intensive nature of manufacturing meant further external funding would be required to scale.

When a competitor three to four times Fine Threads' size approached Jai about acquiring the business as a brownfield expansion into his region, he took the proposal to his investors and negotiated the exit himself. With no investment bank involved, he structured the acquisition, valued the company, and negotiated the terms directly. He also negotiated workforce protections to ensure employees were not restructured out. He stayed on for a month post-close to manage the handover.