Arvind gung-ho on apparel brands & retailing

11 Nov '10

3 min read

Arvind Ltd, the Ahmedabad based textile group, recently unveiled, Big Megamart — its first large-sized apparels store in Thane near Mumbai, which has the look of a premium store and the feel of a discount store, but is actually a value store.

Arvind Ltd, the biggest denim fabric producer in India is expanding and penetrating the branded apparels and retailing segment with a vengeance. Arvind has two subsidiaries to ride on; Arvind Lifestyle Brands and Arvind Retail.

Arvind Lifestyle is the branded apparel arm and has iconic brands like Arrow, Izod, US Polo, Gant, etc in its portfolio and clocked a turnover of Rs 2.57 billion in the previous fiscal, thereby, posting a growth of an awesome 35 percent, in one of the most difficult environments and at a time when other clothing brands were gasping for breath.

Arvind Retail the retailing operations subsidiary conducts its business through Megamart, which too posted a growth rate of 33 percent in the previous fiscal. Currently Megamart occupies a retail floor space of around 450,000 sq. feet and has 150 small format and 5 large format stores, under its belt.

Arvind is banking on strong domestic demand and growing disposable incomes to drive the retail and apparel brands categories and also plans to increase the contribution of these subsidiaries to the revenues of Arvind Ltd, from the present 20 percent to 38 percent, in 2013–14.

In a bid to know more about the current operations as well as expansion plans of Arvind Retail, fibre2fashion spoke exclusively with the CEO of Arvind Lifestyle Brands Ltd and Arvind Retail Ltd., Mr J Suresh.

He began by saying, “Arvind today is the market leader in value retail with its value retail chain - Megamart. Currently Megamart operates in two formats. The small format where the outlet size is between 3000 and 6000 sq ft and the large format where the store size is between 30,000 and 60,000 sq ft.

“Currently we have 150 small and 5 large format stores. We will scale this up to 300 small and 15 large format stores over the next two years. With the economy growing at 9%, the disposable income of the consumers will be going up pretty sharply over the next four years as a result of which, share of foods as a percentage of spending will keep coming down and will shift to lifestyle products like apparel, healthcare and entertainment”, he added by saying.

“In the next two years, the Megamart Retail chain is expected to reach a turnover of Rs 10 billion from the current Rs. 4 billion. In addition, the brands business which currently has 200 exclusive brand outlets will also be scaling up rapidly to about 400 stores over the next two years and the sales of this business will also reach Rs. 10 billion. Arvind Brands & Retail put together will contribute to 38% of the Arvind Group's revenue in 2013–14”, he concluded by saying.

Fibre2fashion News Desk - India

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