Royal Classic to open 25 retail stores

Tirupur-based textile company and owners of the Classic Polo brand, the Royal Classic Group, is planning to open 25 exclusive company-owned retail stores in the northern region, out of the 100 such stores it plans to open in the country by the end of next year. The group has an annual turnover of Rs 220 crore.

The privately owned company is also planning to come out with an initial public offering (IPO) next year to fund its plan for distribution in the domestic market.

The group currently has 17 such outlets in south and west India, apart from the 1,200-odd multi-brand stores, where its products are sold. It plans to open three stores every month to achieve this target. The products include T-shirts, shirts, trousers, infant and kids wear and the innerwear segment under the 'smash' brand.

The company also exports garments worth Rs 100 crore annually to the US, Canada and Europe. Some of its clients include GAP, FILA and Daniel Hechter of Paris.

Talking about the future plans of the company, R Sivaram, Executive Director, Royal Classic Group, said, "The Company is spreading its presence to all parts of the country. By the end of December 2007, we would be having about 100 exclusive company owned stores. We are the pioneers in garment manufacturing and we export to all leading international brands. Now we are focusing to expand aggressively in the domestic market.

We are a fully integrated company, which sources cotton through contract farming and is into cotton ginning, spinning, knitting, dying, fabric finishing and garmenting. Our strength lies in maintaining quality standards and a competitive team of garment professionals," he said speaking to Business Standard. He was in the city to inaugurate its 18th store in India and first in the north. He said that the company's focus would be metro and mini metro cities in the north and is targeting people with an age of over 25 and earning over Rs 10,000 per month.

"We are aiming a 30 per cent growth every year. We would be increasing our production capacities of undergarments, T-shirts, infant and kids wear, shirts and trousers. For example we would be producing about 5,000 shirts daily from the current 2,000 and 1,000 trousers, which were earlier not produced. For this we would be investing Rs 1.5 crores and Rs 2 cores in plant and machinery for shirts and trousers, respectively.

Currently, we produce 100 bales of cotton per day and in knitting our 45 machines produce 10 tons of fabric per day. Apart from expanding the other activities, we would be expanding the spinning capacity to 25,000 spindles from its current capacity of 16,000 spindles by investing about Rs 22 crores." He said that the company has recently also expanded its plant and machinery, which was mostly imported to suit the quality requirements of both domestic and international markets.

The company is also looking forward to an IPO in the next year. However, the amount to be raised has not been finalized so far as the plans are at an initial stage. The proceeds from the IPO would be utilized to funds its distribution network in the domestic market.