Maharaja Silks traces its origin to 1936, when Maharaja Textile began as a humble 500 sq. ft. store in Kalavai, built on a strong foundation of quality, trust, and customer commitment. Over the decades, the brand’s unwavering focus on authentic fabrics, diverse assortments, and exclusive designs helped it earn the loyalty of generations of customers. Maharaja’s legacy and work ethic also became the inspiration behind the success of Seematti, further strengthening its presence in South India’s textile landscape.
From a single store, the journey expanded steadily to key cultural centres including Thanjavur, Kumbakonam, Ramanathapuram, Thiruvarur, Karaikudi , Trichy and Karaikal. Backed by over 84 years of experience, the brand today operates six direct stores spanning more than 3 lakh sq. ft., offering an elevated and expansive retail experience.
Rooted in reliability, dedication, and customer loyalty, Maharaja Silks stands as a respected heritage textile brand. With the launch of the Seematti showroom in Thiruvarur in 2018, the group continues to evolve—blending tradition, scale, and unmatched customer service while celebrating India’s enduring sartorial culture.
In an exclusive interaction with IMAGES Business of Fashion, M S Asif Ali, Managing Director, Maharaja Textile, talks about the brand’s enduring legacy, its evolution and how a steadfast focus on quality, customer trust, and authentic assortments has driven sustained growth across generations.
A nine-decade legacy is exceptional in Indian retail. How has the Maharaja– Seematti journey since 1936 influenced the brand’s philosophy, organisational culture, and core business values today?
A ninety-year legacy is a responsibility we carry with pride. The Maharaja – Seematti journey from 1936 has shaped our philosophy of trust, quality, and heartfelt service. Each generation from the start till the current fourth generation have passed on the baton by making them understand and built on our core values — honesty in pricing, respect for customers, and deep societal connection. Even as we embrace modern retail, technology, and new formats, our foundation remains unchanged; a culture born from tradition, strengthened by relationships, and guided by the belief that purpose must always be stronger than profit.
How has each milestone influenced your expansion strategy and local market understanding?
Every milestone, from Kalavai to Thanjavur, Kumbakonam, Ramanathapuram, Thiruvarur, Karaikudi, Trichy, Karaikal and now Tiruchirappalli refined our understanding of people and markets. First 30 years of the journey helped create a stronger foundation and from 2014 when we started expansion, each town taught us something unique. Trust and humility, store ambience, customer experience, festival-based buying, value-conscious shopping, hyperlocal preferences, youth-driven fashion, and finally the urban aspirations of Trichy. We do not replicate stores; we curate them for the community they serve. Our strategy has always been simple — grow with people, not ahead of them.
With the launch of Majestic Maharaja as a modern retail format, what differentiates it from the traditional Maharaja experience?
Majestic Maharaja marks the point where our ninety-year legacy meets the vision of the fourth generation. While Maharaja continues as the soulful, tradition-rich experience trusted by families for decades, Majestic Maharaja is its youthful interpretation, shaped by fresh ideas, modern design sensibilities, and a deep understanding of today’s fashion culture. Evolving from a pure textile store, it was curated as an all-in-one shopping destination offering enhanced experiences such as cafés, nuts and spices sections, and kids’ play areas. The fourth generation has introduced faster fashion cycles, trend-led assortments, sharper value pricing, digital engagement, and global retail cues, all while preserving the emotional core of Maharaja. This evolution bridges generations — honouring the past while confidently embracing the future.
What is your current store portfolio and how each format is designed to serve a specific segment of consumers?
Our retail strength today is anchored in two clearly defined formats under the Majestic Maharaja umbrella. The large format stores serve as complete family-shopping destinations, offering expansive assortments across all categories, age groups, and price points — from affordable daily wear to premium boutique collections. Complementing this, our short format stores are compact yet thoughtfully curated, combining value-driven essentials, fast-moving low-range products, and select boutique pieces for youth, families, and price-sensitive shoppers. Currently, we operate five large-format and two small-format stores, with plans to expand to six large and four small formats by 2026.
How do you measure customer loyalty, and what factors have strengthened consumer trust over the decades?
Customer trust has been the driving force behind every phase of our expansion, measured through both data and deep emotional relationships. Each month, nearly 80% of our footfall comes from existing customers — families who return for festivals, weddings, and milestones, some of whom represent four generations of association with us. The remaining 20% are first-time customers, attracted by our campaigns, word-of-mouth, and the reputation built over 90 years. Loyalty is tracked through repeat-purchase behaviour, festival retention, CRM insights, and wedding-customer conversion cycles. Beyond data, we nurture relationships by personally engaging with long-standing customers during festive seasons through special invitations and hampers. Honest pricing, consistent quality, and respectful service have remained unchanged since 1936, forming the foundation of enduring consumer trust.
How has store design and visual merchandising evolved within the group from the early textile stores to the modern Majestic Maharaja outlets?
Our store design and visual merchandising have evolved steadily over the decades — from functional textile-led spaces to today’s state-of-the-art Majestic Maharaja outlets designed as immersive retail environments. With expansion into new cities, we collaborated with contemporary architects and retail designers to develop a modern, minimalistic design language while staying rooted in tradition. Natural tones, clean layouts, intuitive navigation, and subtle cultural elements create warmth without visual clutter. A key strategic decision has been to standardise this design philosophy across all upcoming stores, ensuring a consistent yet elevated experience everywhere. This thoughtful balance between heritage and modernity allows customers to feel reassured by familiarity while enjoying a refined, contemporary retail atmosphere.
What key retail technologies have you integrated across the brand; whether in billing, inventory, customer data, omnichannel, or store operations? How have they improved efficiency and customer experience?
Technology acts as the silent backbone of our retail operations, enabling scale without losing the personal touch. Across Majestic Maharaja, an integrated POS system provides real-time visibility of product-wise display and available stock, ensuring tighter control, faster replenishment, and automated reordering to avoid stock gaps. Our in-house task management application drives daily staff accountability, streamlined store operations, and consistent service standards across locations. On the customer side, CRM-led automation enables meaningful engagement through personalised WhatsApp communication for birthdays, special occasions, and targeted campaigns based on purchase behaviour. Together, these systems reduce manual dependency, improve efficiency, and enhance the overall shopping experience — reinforcing that thoughtfully applied technology strengthens human connection rather than replacing it.
How do you balance tradition with innovation especially when appealing to both legacy consumers and a younger, aspirational audience in 2025?
Balancing tradition with innovation begins with a non-negotiable principle: every customer must receive the same respect, warmth, and attention, irrespective of age, profile, or spending level. Our service culture remains rooted in old-world hospitality — listening patiently, guiding honestly, and serving with dignity. At the same time, innovation enables us to personalise this experience further for our long-standing customers. Using customer data, purchase history, and relationship-led engagement, we recognise familiar faces, understand preferences, and offer more meaningful interactions without compromising fairness to new visitors. This reassures legacy customers that the service they trust remains unchanged, while younger, aspirational shoppers experience a brand that feels modern, responsive, and relevant. In 2025, this balance allows Majestic Maharaja to honour its past while confidently embracing the future.
Share your product strategy across categories and which category is categories driving maximum revenue today?
Our product strategy is driven by depth, diversity, and disciplined curation. We source textiles and ready-to-wear products from over 16 states across India, giving us access to a wide spectrum of fabrics, craftsmanship, and regional expertise. Beyond sourcing, we curate and develop our own fabric-to-fashion collections, carefully planning textures, colours, and silhouettes based on seasonality, climate, and customer lifestyles. Our range spans textiles, women’s and men’s ready-to-wear, kidswear, and home textiles, creating a complete family offering. From a revenue standpoint, women’s and men’s wear remain our strongest growth drivers, supported by high purchase frequency, festival-led demand, and evolving fashion adoption. This balanced approach keeps us relevant, resilient, and closely aligned with everyday and occasion-driven customer needs.
What are the biggest opportunities you see in the Tamil Nadu retail market in the next 3–5 years?
The upcoming Tiruchirappalli store marks a defining milestone for us — a nearly 1 lakh sq. ft. flagship Majestic Maharaja Store that symbolises a century of transformation and sets the blueprint for our future growth. Tamil Nadu’s apparel market continues to record consistent year-on-year growth, driven by rising aspirations, increased fashion adoption beyond metros, and strong festival-led consumption. Over the next 3–5 years, we see a significant opportunity to replicate this flagship-led model across the state, expanding into all prominent cities with formats tailored to local demand. We firmly believe that delivering a superior customer experience is the true differentiator, and our goal is to create one-stop destinations for our customers. Trichy will serve as both a brand showcase and an operational benchmark, combining scale, experience, and assortment depth to drive sustainable growth across Tamil Nadu.
What role does people play in sustaining a 90-year business?
People and talent development have been the quiet pillars behind our 90-year continuity. Today, out of 1,500+ team members, over 300 have served for more than five years, 94 for over a decade, and 28 for more than 15 years, reflecting the deep bond of trust built over generations. We see our people not as employees, but as long-term partners in our journey. A dedicated Learning & Development team ensures structured training, role-specific skill enhancement, and leadership grooming across all designations, along with department-based learning programmes that support individual growth. This culture of investment, respect, and shared progress has enabled many team members to rise from entry-level roles into leadership positions. Sustaining a 90-year business, we believe, is as much about nurturing people as it is about retail strength.
How do you train and empower staff across multiple locations?
Training and empowerment across multiple locations are driven through a structured, corporate-led approach supported by a dedicated Learning & Development team. We follow industry-standard retail training methodologies covering product knowledge, selling skills, customer psychology, visual merchandising, billing processes, SOP compliance, grooming, and service etiquette, reinforced through continuous on-the-job coaching and performance reviews. Our in-house trainers regularly travel to every store to conduct hands-on sessions, ensuring consistency in service culture across locations. For new stores, we recruit team members nearly two months in advance and place them in intensive induction programmes that combine theoretical learning with practical exposure through cross-training at existing stores.
How has the supply chain, sourcing network evolved over the decades?
Our supply-chain evolution reflects our transformation from a traditional textile house into a professionally managed retail organisation. In the early years, sourcing was largely single-handed — personally travelling to key markets, procuring directly, and managing stock in-house through experience-led planning. As we expanded, we built a structured corporate hierarchy with General Manager and Deputy General Manager oversight, branch-wise product development heads, and store teams of over 45 members aligned to local demand, making procurement decentralised in insight yet centralised in control. Today, store requirements are mapped through a disciplined, software-enabled order mechanism that enables planned buying, timely replenishment, and clear stock visibility. Our sourcing now spans from yarn and fabric development to finished garments delivered to individual store warehouses. Despite modernisation, we continue long-standing partnerships of over 35 years, reinforcing growth built on trust, consistency, and credibility.
What efficiencies or new capabilities define your current backend?
Our current backend is defined by scale, structure, and intelligent automation. We operate with a strong centralised backend team of over 60+ professionals across 14 specialised departments, covering operations, technology, MIS, HR, CRM, customer interaction, finance, procurement, and loss prevention. Core processes are increasingly automated — from real-time MIS dashboards and robust customer data systems to technology-led store operations and AI-enabled surveillance and anti-theft mechanisms coordinated through our operations team. This integrated backend allows faster decision-making, tighter control, improved compliance, and consistent execution across all locations. More importantly, it frees our frontline teams to focus on what matters most — delivering a seamless, secure, and personalised customer experience — while ensuring the business runs efficiently, transparently, and future-ready.
What metrics define success for your stores in form of footfall, basket size, conversion, or customer lifetime value?
Store success for us is measured through a balanced scorecard that reflects both our legacy strength and modern retail ambitions. As a heritage-driven brand empowered for today’s youth, we track daily footfall, conversion ratios, average basket size, value per square foot earned and reinvested, customer retention, and repeat visitation cycles. These metrics help us assess not just customer volume, but the quality of engagement over time. Alongside financial performance, we closely monitor customer lifetime value, festival-led reactivation, and campaign-based retapping of dormant customers to drive sustained growth. This holistic approach — balancing scale, efficiency, profitability, and loyalty — defines success in today’s corporate retail environment and continues to guide Majestic Maharaja’s disciplined, long-term performance.
What is brand’s vision in terms of expansion and digital evolution?
As we look toward the next decade, our vision is ambitious, disciplined, and driven by deep passion. Structured as a Private Limited company with an active Board and a strong core leadership team of 12 General Managers led by Vice Presidents, we are planning calibrated expansion — opening flagship stores in major metropolitan cities every year while simultaneously rolling out smaller, high-efficiency formats across Tier 2 cities. To scale with control, we aim to replicate our proven core-team functionality zone-wise across all four regions of Tamil Nadu, creating decentralised execution with central governance. On the digital front, we are investing in future-ready retail through in-house POS and stock-management systems, RFID-enabled inventory accuracy, and VR- and AI-powered in-store experiences. Rooted in 90 years of values, the brand is focused on building a scaled, future-ready business by 2030, guided by our broder vision ‘Majestic Maharaja store in every district’.
