Arvind Lifestyle, a subsidiary of India’s largest textile and apparel company Arvind Ltd., holds franchisee agreement with 14 international brands, including Gap, Calvin Klein and Aeropostale, and 12 in-house brands. The blooming firm now aims to attain 70% of its profit from its international brands in India. The CEO and MD of Arvind Lifestyle Brands, J. Suresh stated “Presently, international brands contribute around 60 per cent of our turnover and rest 40 per cent comes from our own brands. It (share of international brands) may go up to 70 per cent in two-three years,”. He adds “We are adding around 150 stores every year. Currently, we have 1,050 stores and will add 300 more stores in two years,”. The firm shall be investing Rs.200 crore into yearly expansion of it retail network. Currently, they have 1,050 stores across the country.
As per its strategy, the company offers premium foreign brands for the aspirational class and domestic homegrown brands for the mass segment, added Mr.Suresh. “As the country develops in the fashion space, aspiration brands would do very well. We need to take a position there and the same time, in the areas of value segment, we are building our own position because there international brands are not a big draw,” he said. In additional, the company anticipates a 15% hike in sales from increasing presence in the e-commerce space. “Currently, its very small, around 3 to 4 per cent, but it would increase as we are strongly looking for omni-channel play. In a full-blown kind of situation, we may reach as big as 15 per cent of our total sales from e-commerce,” he said.
Arrow, US Polo and Flying Machine are Arvind’s biggest brands, followed by Calvin Klein and Nautica.”These are the five brands, which we are really going to bet on,” Suresh said, adding that Hanes is also picking up.
