Koutons to launch own shoe line soon

Koutons India Retail Ltd will expand its product line and launch its own brand of shoes by the third quarter of this year. The shoes will be sold under the brand name of 'Koutons Footwear'.

For this venture, the apparel retailer has tied up with a shoe manufacturing company based at Dehra Dun, Uttarakhand.

"We'll start with the men and kids shoe wear, and later venture into ladies shoe. It's a joint venture with the local shoe manufacturer at Dehra Dun. This will be part of our extension of the existing line of products," Balvinder Singh Ahluwalia, president, Koutons Retail, told Business Standard.

However, he didn't give the details regarding the size of partnership and investment about the same, commenting "we have tied up for the manufacturing only, it will be 100 per cent company-owned entity".

The company will also source leather from Kanpur and Agra, he added.

Ahluwalia was in Lucknow to open the twenty third Koutons store in Lucknow. So far, the company has 210 such 'family store' in Uttar Pradesh.

"In sync with the company's aggressive retail expansion plans across the country, we will add 100 more to its existing network of 1,200 outlets over the next one year. The investment will be made in the tune of Rs 100 crore," he said.

Out of these, about 25 stores will be in Uttar Pradesh. The new openings will be at Rae Bareli, Varanasi, Moradabad, Kanpur, Allahabad and Gorakhpur.

The company did a business of around Rs 150 crore from the state this year.

"We will first introduce the shoes in the northern market like Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana and Delhi, and then venture into south. We feel there is still untapped potential for branded apparel market down the South, which we want to cater," added Ahluwalia.