Arvind Brands, the international licencee for Lee, Wrangler, Arrow, and Tommy Hilfiger, and the owner of brands like Flying Machine, Newport, Excalibur ,and Ruf & Tuf, is beefing up two of its homegrown products this year – Excalibur and Flying Machine. Excalibur will enter new markets like Kolkata and Tamil Nadu and their peripheral areas. Flying Machine, which underwent a revamp last year, will roll out an aggressive retail expansion plan.
Alok Dubey, brand head for Excalibur and Flying Machine, said, ?The men?s apparel market in India is estimated at around Rs 40,000 crore, of which branded apparel constitutes Rs 2,000 crore. Excalibur operates in the mid-premium value segment, which is about Rs 1,200 crore. Out of this, we will be clocking around Rs 100 crore.? Since the brand’s relaunch last year, its sales has grown by 60-70% on retail basis. ?Prior to the revamp, Excalibur had a more price-led positioning rather than a lifestyle-led positioning. By March-April, Excalibur will be entering two markets that we had completely ignored earlier – East India and parts of South India,? Dubey added.
The company says it wants to control retail, rather than just have a partnership, and is creating its own retail network to enter these two markets. It also has tie-ups with Shopper?s Stop, Lifestyle, and Globus. The focus market for Excalibur is Delhi, Bangalore, and Hyderabad, which garner the maximum volume and revenue for the brand.
Flying Machine operates in the Rs 5,000 crore denim market, of which denims priced below Rs 700 forms about Rs 3,500 crore of the market, and the rest is for denim priced above Rs 700.
Dubey said, ?In the Rs 1,500 crore market, top international brands capture only about Rs 600 crore, and fake labels, the rest. There is a good proposition to create an international imagery for the Flying Machine brand.?
Last May, research showed that there was no brand recall at all for Flying Machine and so it was revamped. Following that, the second research showed that people could recall the brand but thought that it’s an international product. Abhishek Bachchan was then signed on as the brand ambassador. This time, research showed that the brand recall value was back.
?We are putting our bets on Delhi and Bangalore first. We started some symbolic business in Mumbai. Hyderabad, the largest denim market, is important too. We expect to capture at least 10% of the Rs 1,500 crore denim market,? concluded Dubey.