Van Heusen To Open 30 Innerwear & Athleisure Exclusive Stores
Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail's Van Heusen Innerwear & Athleisure business entered the Indian market in September last year. The brand is doing well since then and has consolidated it's presence in the southern part of India.
Speaking to BW Businessworld, Puneet Kumar Malik, COO, Innerwear Business, Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail feels that today consumers have become more fashion conscious. Earlier they were more price driven and now they are more brand and fashion driven.
Malik shared that today's consumers don't think inner wear and athleisure as a pure need but they would like to buy something which they can feel good and look good.
In order to serve consumers with more aspirational products, Van Heusen is all set to expand its foot print across the country. The brand entered the innerwear and athleisure market in September 2016 and is present in more than 1700 outlets so far.
Apart from this, the brand rides on it's elite distribution network which is present in the form of 200 Van Heusen outlets, 300 Planet Fashion outlets and more than 150 Pantaloons outlets.
Malik said, "The brand is growing at a significant pace. We have launched in the south and we have seen athleisure contributing to 30-35% of the business at this point in time."
Massive Market
With the growing market, the brand is coming up with more offerings as they see fashion products are well accepted. The market for this segment is growing significantly. The marcher size men's inner wear is Rs 7000 crore in 2016 and it is estimated to touch Rs 10,000 crore this year. It is growing at the pace of 13-14 per cent per year.
The mid premium and premium segment is growing significantly in addition to the economy segment. In the current situation, the economy segment has 50 per cent market share while mid premium and premium has 40 per cent market share and super premium accounts for 10 percent.
The mid premium and premium segment is growing faster and the economy segment is growing at eight to nine per cent every year.
Jockey has been the only player which has introduced mid premium and premium segment in the country and rest of the players like Rupa, Amul and others are playing in the economy segment.
Malik sees Jockey as their biggest competitor but he said, "We are playing in a space where we are little above than Jockey."
In the next two to three years, Van Heusen is looking to become a significant player across India.
Expanding their reach
Van Heusen is planning to open 30 exclusive innerwear stores across the country. Seventy percent of the stores will be in metros and the rest will be tier I&II cities. "We have seen the growth coming from tier II&III cities and we have a strong network of Planet Fashion stores in these markets. There are 150 stores of Planet fashion in these cities," Malik said.
All the new stores that Van Heusen will come up with will demand an investment of around Rs 20-25 lakh including capital and stock. Seventy percent of their upcoming stores will be franchise led and the remaining will be company owned and company operated.
Malik highlighted that online accounts for 10-15 % of their total sales and he is confident about its growth to 20-25 percent in the coming three years.
The primary focus for Puneet Malik is to expand the distribution network nationally and once it reaches to its full strength, they will expand their promotion and marketing activities and increase their spend on this significantly.
When asked if the innerwear business is profitable or en route to profit, Malik replied, "We should be able to make money in a year or so." At this point of time, he is in the process of building the brand through investment through all possible avenues including promotions, expansion and distribution.
