Many successful businesses have been born out of a gaping need that founders experienced themselves, much like redBus. Mustang Socks and Accessories began that way too. Founder Naazneen Katrak, had an allergy to nylon and synthetic socks, which was all that was available in the 1980s. So, she started her own firm to manufacture cotton socks in 1987. In 2004, she met Lubeina Shahpurwala who wanted to export Mustang socks under her family exports business. The duo got along so well they decided to become business partners and Shahpurwala joined Mustang. Ten years on, their partnership has resulted in great business for the 300-people company as the turnover has doubled to Rs60-crore since 2004. The company today manufactures one million pairs of socks every month and supplies to some of the biggest international clothing brands such as Debenhams, Marks and Spencer and Austin Reed in India, and exports to Europe and the Middle East. 

Production and design is my favourite part of running this business."- Naazneen Katrak

Naazneen Katrak: Running businesses can change people, I’ve heard. But, I think I’m the same person I was when I first began Mustang Socks in 1987. I used to be a socks trader before, and I realised that the market was brimming with nylon socks. I felt that gap personally. I could only wear cotton socks but would find it impossible to get consistent quality and sizes. I decided to manufacture my own. I remember the days when I used to go on my bike to buy yarn, get it dyed and stitched at a tailor, pack it up and take it to the shops to sell—everything by myself. I did that for almost two years till I  developed a handicap in my foot. I had to hire more people to do sales for me. Fortunately, I was able to buy a Maruti 800 automatic car. It was specifically designed for the specially-abled. My zeal for business didn’t change with my “handicap”. I continued travelling for work. Even now, I usually drive myself on the way back home from our factory in Palghar.

Hands on Design: Naazneen Katrak ensures her staff is alert by conducting random checks to ensure quality products and an aversion to the "chalta hai" attitude

Palghar is a town in Thane district that is about two and a half hours away from our company head office in Mumbai. I spend most of my week—from Monday to Thursday—at the factory, working on production and design of socks. My job is to ensure that everything from the yarn coming into the factory to the goods being shipped out of the factory happens on time. One of my former bosses had told me once that if you want anything to go right, you need to have a minute to minute plan. I don’t do a minute to minute plan but I do sometimes have an hour to half an hour plan. For instance, I’ll tell my team that I want this done by 10.30am, I will calculate that it would take half an hour for the sample to reach a certain department and then another hour to reach the next one and so I should have it by X amount of time. If it isn’t there, I want to know why. I think this inculcates a sense of discipline in the staff with regard to timelines.

Production and design is my favourite part of running this business. But until 2004, I couldn’t solely concentrate on that because I was running a one (wo)man show, looking into each and every aspect of the company. Thankfully, when Lubeina joined us, she immediately took up marketing and I had all the freedom to be on the floor. That’s the way I would have always liked it to be. Now, I only have to look into the processes and finances of the company on Fridays and Saturdays when I am in the Mumbai office. 

Lubeina Shahpurwala: My schedule runs almost the opposite. I am in Palghar for about two to three days and spend most of my time in the Mumbai office, looking after sales, marketing and business development. My days are a little manic up until 3pm as my teams and I are on calls with clients and delivery guys. We export our socks to the Middle East, Italy and Europe and have presence in 1500 multi-brand outlets including Next, Mackays and Max in India. Even before I had joined Mustang as partner, it was one of the most commonly available brands in the market and because of our wide distribution channels, a lot of retailers have actually approached us to keep our socks in their stores to sell. In fact, the store manager at Marks and Spencer told me that his children had been wearing Mustang socks for years and so they were keen on selling them in their stores. Even though I enjoy marketing, I love being in the factory because all the action takes place there! In fact, the biggest high of running this business for both of us is seeing a design conceptualised on paper getting transformed into a sample and then packed to be shipped to a store. 

NK: The joy of creating new designs and themes in socks is what I live for. A few days ago, somebody with a Jaipur foot was desperately looking for socks that would be comfortable for him but couldn’t find a pair. We designed a pair especially for him and now we have queries from the hospital he goes to for his treatment. I am paralysed on the left leg myself and I need socks that apply a certain amount of pressure on the foot but are still loose and roomy to wear. That’s how we came up with idea for health socks, socks that are comfortable for swollen legs and diabetics. One day, a very elongated sock came out of the machine and it got us thinking—why don’t we make tights for kids? After some trial and errors, we launched tights for children in the market. Most of our innovations haven’t been a result of planning but chance encounters such as these. 

The biggest high of running this business for both of us is seeing a design conceptualised on paper getting transformed into a sample and then packed to be shipped to a store. 

LS: I think we’ve been able to create so many new designs because of the thorough homework we do with our machines. Naazneen is a machine enthusiast and she’s always been scouting for new gadgets to use in the factory to produce different kinds of socks. You need a different feature in the machine to produce five toed socks and a different one for producing children’s 3-D socks (socks that have an ear or an eye popping out). We mostly use machines from Korea and Taiwan. Luckily, we’ve reached a reputation in the market where our suppliers are willing to give us two or three sample machines to try at their cost and only if we like them do we need to order them in bulk. Whenever our machine supplier comes to meet us, he’s surprised that we’ve come up with another new feature to be added to the machine. I think he’s happy that he’s constantly pushed to innovate his products as well. 

NK: People normally go to Dubai to shop for perfumes and clothes. I go to the market where they sell all kinds of tools and machines. These machines are not always for manufacturing socks. But they could be smaller tools like magnetic screw drivers or LED yellow lights that we could put on the machine to make it more convenient to use. I have always believed that the greater the convenience you provide to your workers, the better would be your product. If there’s less back bending, more back support and less eye strain for the worker, it reflects in the quality of your socks.  I personally live the benefits of intuitive, enabling technologies. My automated wheelchair can move around the different departments in the factory. It helps me be on the floor as often as I want. Even though we have 90 people in the Quality Control department, I like to do a random quality check of our socks very often. It keeps the staff alert. By now, they have realised how finicky I am about the quality so they don’t fall prey to the chalta hai attitude.

LS: Most of our workers at the factory have been working with us for decades. So during my day, I make it a point to take out about an hour of my time to just sit and chat with our staff. These are usually informal conversations about people’s families. There have been times when one of our teammates has actually called us at midnight to discuss a personal problem. But, we don’t mind that. I have a lot of respect for our people. I remember an incident from our old office in Dadar which got flooded during the Mumbai floods. One of our planning heads in the factory, Krishna ji, picked up Naazneen’s electronic typewriter, put it on his head and stood on the table for four hours till the water receded. That was the most expensive piece of machinery we owned and he thought it was important to save it. I can’t top that level of dedication and ownership.

NK: Our interactions and meetings with people usually happen post lunch. Lubeina is very particular about having her meals on time. So if she’s in the factory, we’ll have lunch together at around 12:30pm or 1pm. If she isn’t there, I am so absorbed in work that I usually skip it. After about 7pm, I prefer some me-time in office to plan out the next day. That’s when Lubeina and I are usually firing off emails to our teams about the work that needs to be done the next day. This way, by the time we’re in office the next morning, people already know what they’re supposed to be doing. 

LS: We leave office by 7.30pm or 8pm in the evening, whether we’re in the factory or the Mumbai office. I usually go for a run after that. It’s essential for me to rejuvenate before I have dinner and go to sleep at 11pm. 

Naazneen's 'handicap' did not change her zeal for business, as she "lives the benefits of intuitive, enabling technologies." -

NK: I don’t work once I am out of the factory and switch off until 6am the next morning. I spend time with my pet dog in Palghar and then sleep post-midnight. Running Mustang with Lubeina has been a great experience. We are a great team. It’s never my word or her word. Whenever there’s a disagreement on an issue, we have to convince the other logically about why we feel that way and it gets resolved. If there’s a problem with production or design, she comes over to the factory. If there’s a marketing glitch she’s dealing with, I travel with her. I try and make sure I travel with her for the initial dialogue with a client to understand what they want as far as the product goes and when they ask for something we can’t do, I have the knowledge to say this can’t be done because we don’t have the right machine to make it. Earlier, I used to travel every 15 days or so but now it has reduced to once every 45 or 60 days. I love travelling because it stimulates my brain and gives me a break from production work in the factory. My foot has never perturbed me or stopped me from doing that. I have been a very active person all my life. I have done mountaineering and horse riding for decades. I have sold JCBs and cement mixers in showrooms in Muscat. I built a company that today has almost 50 per cent  share of the organised socks market in India. When people ask me what I would do if I got a chance to live all over again, I tell them I would not live my life any other way.