Van Heusen to add 25 only women stores every year

Also plans 50 retail stores; major expansion to be in Tier-II, III cities

Van Heusen, the business wear and casual wear brand of Aditya Birla Group’s Madura Fashion & Lifestyle, plans to lay emphasis on women’s and youth wears.

The company, which focussed mainly on men’s business wear, said it would open 20-25 exclusive women’s stores every year and also reposition its VDOT brand.

Vinay A Bhopatkar, brand head —Van Heusen, said the company plans to add around 50 stores every year, especially in tier II and III cities, which will account for about 60 per cent of the proposed expansion.

This expansion will not include exclusive stores for women’s wear which is the fastest-growing segment and in the next 3-4 years the brand a growth of 40-50 per cent growth, said Bhopatkar.

At present, 10 per cent of the total sales comes from women’s wear segment for the company, while the industry average is same as that of men’s wear.

To increase the share, the company is looking to add 20-25 exclusive women’s wear stores every year, to the current 12 across the country. At present this category contributes around Rs 100 crore and in the next three years it hopes to double it.

The other category, which will come into focus would be youth. The company is planning to reposition the brand, VDOT by giving more emphasis to cater youths requirements by giving more offerings, including new formal wears.

VDot was a club-wear brand which could be used for other casual occasions like movie going, family parties and picnics. VDot was basically a denim collection.

At present, Van Heusen runs 10-12 stores under this brand and is planning to open 15-20 stores every year.

Similarly, to push the accessories’ contribution it has decided to add five more stores in the next 24 months.

Currently, it has only one store in Kerala.

The market trend is while, 40 per cent will come from men wear, equal number will come from women wear, while balance 10 per cent from accessories and another 10 from kids, said Bhopatkar, adding that the company would also equal contribution from the women segment and ruled out possibility of entering into kids segment.

Van Heusen brands are currently sold through around 2,000 point of sales, and this includes 250 exclusive stores, 200 department stores and 1,000 multi-brand outlets and through other modes.

The brand currently clocks around Rs 1,500 crore, at the market retail price, which was a 20 per cent growth over the same period last year. Of the sales, around 2-3 per cent comes via e-commerce, said Bhopatkar.