Agent Of Change

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: top women’s wear brand within a short span of time. At retail, the brand is valued at Rs 225 crore. When the men’s collection was launched in India the base was small and the growth exponential. With the launch of the women’s collection, there was a top line growth of about 30% and the current CAGR of the brand is about 28%.

The company says the reason for these brand extensions was simple. Women were beginning to make their mark in corporate circles, they were moving step in step with men and were increasingly becoming confident, savvy and fashion conscious. While women were changing, there was hardly any choice in the women’s wear market that would help reflect the changing attitude.

Of, course, the market itself has great potential. According to a Technopak study, the apparel market in India is estimated at Rs 1,17,300 crore and growing at CAGR 13%. It is expected to reach Rs 2,17,000 crore by 2012. While the men’s wear market makes up the largest chunk—accounting for 35.5% of the total apparel pie—it is the women’s wear market that is growing the fastest. Currently valued at Rs 37,900 crore, it stands at 32.3% of the total apparel market. (2007 estimates)

Says Satyajit, “Being the first brand in western wear women’s market was an opportunity as well as a challenge (for Allen Solly). There were no established norms and hence everything including merchandise architecture, distribution network, educating the consumer about the right fits and so on was a first time experience for us.”

All said, it wasn’t all that easy for the brand, well-acquainted as it were with the men’s wear market to pick up the rules that guide women’s wear. For one, though the lifestyle look is getting more and more important in both men’s and women’s wear, in men’s wear it does get compartmentalised into solids, checks and stripes, and the purchase behaviour is more need-based. In women’s wear, it is completely look-led. Women like to mix and match and hence it is important that at the point-of-purchase the brand helps them create an ensemble look complete with accessories.

Men’s wear retail also has the advantage of staple classics which do not change every season—like blue-and-white pinstripe shirts. Women’s wear has no such staples and is ridden with fads.