Cottons by Century on retail footprint expansion spree

09 Feb '07

2 min read

Cottons by Century of the BK Birla flagship Century Textile and Industries, is on an expansion spree all over the country.

The mid-to-premium mens apparel brand company with 100 stores at present plans to open 300 new stores in a bid to corner 7 to 8 lakh square feet of floor space to increase its retail footprints by 2007-08.

Eastern region will be allocated 70 to 80 exclusive brand outlets (EBO) of the 300 new stores planned for the expansion drive.

In first phase 20 to 30 stores are planned while second phase will see the addition of 40 to 50 stores. Orissa is scheduled to have 15-20 stores, says Mahendra Padhy, Head-Marketing, Cottons by Century.

To begin with the company intends to open outlets at commercially active cities such as Cuttack, Bhubaneswar, Rourkela and Berhampur (Orissa) Guwahati (Assam), Patna Jharkhand, Jamshedpur (Bihar), Calcutta,Durgapur (W.B.) by March end.

The brand has been doing well with its sales turnover growing from Rs8.5 crore in 2004-05 to Rs24 crore in 2005-06, an impressive growth of 300 percent, Padhy said.

“We expect to end the current fiscal with a turnover of Rs 50 crore which is again a growth of over 200 percent”, Padhy added.

Of the 20-odd brands that have been launched since last decade, Cottons by Century has been the only brand to register growth of over 200 percent consistently for last three years, which at current rate would rise to Rs110 crore next fiscal and Rs500 to Rs600 crore by 2010, Padhy said.

The company will be focusing on high quality, affordable price with a view to reach tier-3 and tier-4 cities.

The company has opted for a two-way distribution, with distributor supplying to multi-brand stores and direct company sales through its own EBOs.

Cottons by Century, is first to offer 100 percent superfine categories such as Shirts, Trousers, Kurta-Pyjamas, T-shirts, night wear and other accessories.

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