Madura plans to up retail presence

With the Indian retail market looking up, Bangalore-based Madura Garments, an Aditya Birla Nuvo division, has firmed up plans to double the number of its flagship apparel retail stores "� Planet Fashion and Trouser Town "� in emerging cosmopolitan towns and cities in India and West Asia.

Currently, both the retail stores occupy two lakh square feet space, which will be doubled in three years. Madura Garments sells some of the well-known brands such as Louis Philippe, Van Heusen, Allen Solly, Peter England, SF Jeans and Byford in India.

Planet Fashion offers the entire product range of these brands under a single roof, while Trouser Town sells the bottoms.

At present, the number of Planet Fashion stores add up to 55, while for Trouser Town the number is 15, mainly in south India. The new stores are being set up in emerging cosmopolitan towns such as Nagpur, Aurangabad, Madurai, Mangalore, Thrissur, Salem, Belgaum, Gulbarga, Agra, Baroda and Jaipur.

"Planet Fashion is a very good retail format to take our branded apparel business forward. In the last 18 months, we have made rapid strides in developing the image of the stores.

The average size of the new Planet Fashion stores will be between 5,000 square feet and 10,000 square feet," Madura Garments President Hemchandra Javeri told Business Standard.

During the last three years, the company has doubled the number of Planet Fashion stores from the earlier 25. "During 2006-08, our retail operations will witness rapid expansion. We are also targeting high streets, malls and departmental stores to extend our sales.

Our growth is aided by the fast developing retail market as well as the retail infrastructure," he added.

The company is yet to work out the investment details. Madura Garments Retail Head R Parthasarathy said the company will follow the franchise and distributor model for expansion.

The company is also eyeing the West Asian region for growth. Currently, there are eight Planet Fashion stores in West Asia. "This retail format has already established a brand identity for our products. In the coming years, the number of Planet Fashion stores will go up to 20," he said.

Trouser Town, which has presence in Bangalore and Hyderabad, will be seen in Delhi and Mumbai shortly. "Trouser Town is a unique concept, where bottoms of all our brands are sold.

The number of stores will be doubled to create a countrywide presence," Javeri noted.