Putin Impex, the owner of ethnic-wear brand Seven East, is going for liquidation. Mounting losses on declining sales coupled with high real estate costs seem to have forced the company to file for bankruptcy.
Launched in May 2011, the brand scaled its peak in 2014-15, retailing through 17 exclusive brand outlets and about 48 departmental stores, including in Shoppers Stop and Ethnicity. Seven East products were also available on leading e-commerce portals across the country, including Flipkart and Amazon. Sanjay Bindra, promoter of Putin Impex, said, “Unable to sustain the loss we have shut all our operations. The company has gone into liquidation and the matter is still in court, so it is not possible to divulge much.”
A notice that says the property is in “symbolic possession of the official liquidator High Court, Bombay” was pasted on the shutters of a Seven East store at CR2 mall in Mumbai’s Nariman Point business hub. Bindra said the matter is still in court. “Our sales declined and paying a rent of `3 lakh per month became difficult, especially in a place like Nariman Point. The real estate costs were too high for us to sustain. The owner of the store increased the rents and we had to fight it out in court. The only thing I can say is there was some dispute with the owner of the store regarding rent,” Bindra said, declining to provide further details.
He further claimed that the company presently has no debt on its books and has shut the remaining stores too. According to the registrar of companies filing, the company reported a loss of `63.51 lakh in FY16 compared to a loss of `86.31 lakh in FY15. Total revenue in FY16 declined 11.25% to `40.6 crore from a year ago. As at the end of FY16, the company had a total outstanding debt of `20.8 crore compared to `22.5 crore in FY15. Industry sources indicated that in FY16 the company was down to about 5 to 6 operational stores. Seven East had stores in marquee locations like CR2 mall Nariman Point, Infinity mall, Oberoi mall and Phoenix malls in Lower Parel and Kurla.
