Leather fashion brand Da Milano is planning to enter the south Indian market and tier II and III cities with a price range 30% lower than what it follows in the metros. The brand also plans to open 20 stores in the next one year. Ten of these stores would be in the south and another 10 in international markets like UAE and Singapore. Each store would come up at an investment of R1-1.5 crore, managing director Sahil Malik told FE.

We are now looking at expanding into tier II and tier III cities, apart from the southern region in India. We already have 32 stores in nine cities and are opening 10 more stores in the south. We are planning to grow extensively in the south with stores in Chennai, Hyderabad and Bangalore by this year end, said Malik.

The penetration into smaller towns will increase the sale of handbags for Da Milano from 40% to 60% in the total portfolio. We will only enter these markets with the women bags range which will further increase our share of woman bags in the overall portfolio, said Malik. At present 25% of the total sales for Da Milano is footwear, womens bags is 40-45%, accessories and wallets is 40%. Our revenue sales on year ending March 2012 was Rs 65-70 crore and we expect to grow at 25% this year as well ending March 2013, added Malik.