Apparel major Madura Garments, a unit of Aditya Birla Nuvo, is on a retail expansion mode for many of its existing brands. To tap the growing retail opportunity, the company is planning to launch new sub-brands and private labels with super luxurious positioning and foray into bigger retailing formats. Vikram Rao, director, Aditya Birla Nuvo, told FE, ?We are planning to foray into the super luxurious segment with the launch of a new sub-brand under the luxury Louis Philippe brand soon. Thereafter, we may even look at launching bigger retail formats for Louis Philippe with an area size of 15,000 sq ft of retail space. Similar strategies are being planned for the premium Van Heusen and Allen Solly brands as well.?
Plans are afoot to increase the number of retail outlets for Espirit, the international fashion ready-to-wear brand for women, from 15 to 30 within a year, which may include launching bigger retail formats for the brand. ?We are planning to bring in more international lifestyle brands into India and set up new stand alone retail formats in the super luxurious segment for which talks are currently on,? Rao added.
According to Rao, ?Currently, the super premium ready to wear (RTW) category constitutes 5% of the premium Rs 2,450-crore shirts, trousers and suits market. The segment has the potential of reaching a size of Rs 5,800 crore by 2011. Hence, there is a tremendous opportunity to grow the super luxurious RTW segment.? Madura Garments has also charted out new plans to set up its first pilot project of ?Peter England Family Store? with an area size of 10,000 to 15,000 sq ft by December-end in India. Meanwhile, the company?s leading brand, Peter England, has forayed into the premium segment and launched Peter England Elite international style collection of shirts, trousers and ties.