High global designs

Hidesign, producer of premium leather products, is on the verge of a major expansion binge. The brand which is at present available in 20 exclusive stores besides major multi-brand outlets, will soon be retailed from nine more exclusive outlets by the end of the year.

And the brand also has designs of expanding its international presence. In all, Hidesign wants to have exclusive presence in 100 stores in the next three years.

"We have four exclusive outlets in Moscow and now plan to open in Carmel and Dallas in the US and also three in Dubai," informs Dilip Kapur, president, Hidesign.

He goes on to add that his company will be opening three outlets in Mumbai, two in Delhi and one each in Kolkata, Chennai, Gurgaon and Ahmedabad by the end of this year.

All the international stores will have a similar interior design for which $200,000 has been set aside. Each store will stock anything worth $25,000 to $50,000 of merchandise.

Hidesign began as a one-man workshop in Pondicherry in 1978. "During my doctoral studies in the US, I worked in a leather factory. The interest stayed on when I returned to Pondicherry. In the beginning, it was merely a hobby, designing leather artefacts for friends," Kapur says.

He set up his factory in 1990, producing only leather briefcases and hand bags. By the mid-1990s, he had graduated to designing garments, belts, wallets and other accessories.

Hidesign's recent expansion plans are partly due to the growing demand for its product in the Indian market.

"We've always positioned Hidesign as an aspirational brand. It's not the cheapest of products in the market, either internationally or nationally. Hidesign is product-driven, not price-driven. Over the years, the Indian consumer has matured and is ready to pay for quality products," says Kapur.

He admits that earlier he was happy outsourcing products to various brands in the West. But the recession in the European markets had hit his business in the last two years.

"But surprisingly, the sale of our branded products was not affected. I'm not much of a businessman; my gut feeling told me that the only way to stay afloat was to open exclusive outlets. There was another lesson that we learnt "" our brand grew because of our exclusive outlets not because of multi-brand stores," says Kapur.

Hidesign's turnover for 2002-03 was Rs 48 crore and Kapur believes that this fiscal there will be a 15 per cent increase over last year.