Van Heusen, an apparel retail chain of Madura Fashion and Lifestyle, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Aditya Birla Nuvo, is expanding its footprint across India and plans to launch over 100 stores to woo clients to increase its revenues.
“We are expanding our business in tier II cities by opening over 100 new stores, 70 per cent of which will be franchised and 30 per cent company-owned in the next two years,” Vinay Bhopatkar, brand head at Van Heusen, Madura Fashion & Lifestyle told to the media.
At present, Van Heusen is one of the largest retail chains with 140 company-owned and 60 franchised outlets with 800 to 4,000 sq ft space across 70 cities and large towns.
“Van Heusen is targeting 15-18 per cent growth in sales turnover in financial year 2013-14 riding on planned retail and product expansion,” Bhopatkar said. He said the brand, which had clocked sales revenues of Rs 800 crore in financial year 2012, was expecting to cross Rs 900 crore in March 31.
The company will open 40-50 new outlets in financial year 2013-14, about 70 per cent of them in tier II cities to aggressively tap the growing popularity of the brand. “Tier II cities are showing growth and the trend is pointing a tremendous potential for further growth in these regions with the rise in fashion awareness,” Bhopatkar said, adding that the purchase power of people and the capacity to absorb multiple stores in these cities had also increased.
The brand will roll out the 1,000-1,500 sq ft size new stores mainly in cities such as Aligarh, Bareilly, Bhilai, Guntur, Warangal and Tirupati and north east region.” Depending on the city and location, these new stores will require an initial investment of Rs 20-25 lakh each,” Bhopatkar said. He said it takes about 18-24 months to break even and book profits, he said.
The company said these stores will sell 4,000-5,000 styles of ready-to-wear apparels comprising of office wear, casual wear, party wear or ceremonial wear, making it a complete lifestyle brand.
“Our core target is men and women professionals and corporate executives,” Bhopatkar said, adding that the brand had also become popular with the youth.