Luxury brand Avirate to expand presence in India

Sri Lankan high street fashion company plans outlets in over five cities in next six months

Sri Lankan high street fashion brand Avirate--owned by the Timex and Fergasam Group, that set foot in India one-and-half-years back is drawing up an aggressive expansion plan. The company plans of opening up outlets in five to seven cities in India in the next two quarters.

“We have strong expansion plans in place for India which includes reaching out to cities like Goa, Hyderabad, Noida, Gurgaon and Thane in the next seven to eight months. We are looking at a nearly $1 million (around Rs  5.8 crore) investment for this expansion," said Jahid Osman, managing director, Aviraté India.

To be able to penetrate better into the Indian market the company has partnered with Fashion 365 to market and distribute Avirate.

Osman believes that growth in tier II cities has not yet been tapped by other players. “Our research and analytics teams operating in India, Sri Lanka and the UK work closely together to forecast trends and customer requirements. We produce our garments accordingly and do not hold much inventory. When the brand offers what a consumer requires and updates are maintained via constant communication, attracting walk-ins to the stores becomes easy,” said he.

To be able to compete with some well known international brands, Aviraté says it offers a new collection every month after researching and analysing the consumer’s requirements. The brand offers various fashion products like dresses, tops, bottoms, lingerie, bags, shoes, accessories and scarves.

In a competitive market like India, being available to consumers through online shopping is imperative and Avirate wants to ensure it follows the lead. It has a web shop which is currently operated from Sri Lanka and delivers worldwide. It is also working on its India version--which will be ready in a month’s time--to cater to markets where the brand will not see physical stores opening. Yet, Avirate is available presently through many fashion portals like Myntra, ZivaMe, Flipkart, Fashionara and Jabong among others.

This $3 million fashion brand produces garments in Sri Lanka and imports to India. Both the Indian and Sri Lankan teams work together with Timex Design House in the UK to make buying, design, product and quality decisions.

Apart from opening a second store in Pune, the company is looking at international geographies like Australia, Dubai, Singapore and Canada.