Cotton County to up outlets

In a bid to capture the growing retail market in non-metro cities, Rs 2,400-crore Nahar Industrial Enterprises Ltd (NIEL) plans to increase the number of exclusive outlets of its middle-segment clothing brand, Cotton County, from the present strength of 80 to 200 by the end of this financial year.

The Cotton County brand "� which is worth Rs 50 crore, as NIEL claims "� should more than double in value as a result of the expansion mode that the company is in with a foray in tier-II and tier-III cities.

"The metro retail market is getting crowded; even getting franchisees is an expensive proposition. By moving to smaller cities, we will have a first-player advantage and it will be a truly mass volume brand," NIEL Managing Director Kamal Oswal said.

The company is also in the midst of diversifying its winter wear brand, Monte Carlo, into an all-season brand with a presence of 15 exclusive outlets and 600 multibrand stores.

Company officials, however, said there were no fixed targets for the growth of this brand, though they hoped to have a nationwide footprint for it.

In the previous financial year, Nahar invested Rs 800 crore for expansion plans to be executed in two phases.

While the first phase is expected to be completed this December, the second phase will be completed by 2008, the officials said.

The firm registered a rise of 14.35 per cent in net sales at Rs 694.14 crore for 2005-06, compared with Rs 607.03 crore in the previous financial year.

Its profits after tax jumped from Rs 20.32 crore for 2004-05 to Rs 80.47 crore for the just concluded financial year.