Wills Lifestyle, the garment retailing arm of ITC, is looking at a 30 per cent growth this financial year, riding on the sales growth from its womenswear collection, which is also the company's new focus area.
Wills Lifestyle has lined up new marketing strategies and product launches, targeting the womenswear segment in an attempt to double revenues from this burgeoning category.
According to Atul Chand, divisional chief executive of Wills Lifestyle, womenswear currently contributes 35-40 per cent to the turnover, which the company intends to take to 50-60 per cent soon. Six years ago, womenswear used to contribute only 20 per cent to the company's overall sales.
"Currently womenswear is growing at 30 per cent at Wills, the reason why we thought of tapping this segment by redoing our stores, collection, sizes and styles available for women, as well as tying up with international design studios and designers who could tap the aspiration levels of the modern woman by introducing innovative collection in sync with the current trends," Chand explained.
To begin with, Wills has tied-up with Ricardo Rami Studio (Italy) for fashion wear for women. The company has also got into exclusive tie-ups with designers like Anamika Khanna and Manish Arora for an exclusive range for women.
"The rationale is to offer more variety to consumers, both exclusive designer collections as well as sleek fashionwear from international design studios," Chand said.
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The company is also redoing sizes and styles available at its stores for women in an attempt to offer better fitting. For instance, Wills has launched 'L+' for consumers who wish to choose between large and extra-large sizes. The difference between large and extra large sizes is of 10 centimetres, while a 'L+' offers a size in between the two. Similarly, there are sizes such as 'M+' and 'S+'.
"We are also bullish on accessories, as there is a huge range for women to choose from, like bags and, that too, a different one for different occasions. So, offering variety in range automatically boosts our sales. While for men, the accessories option is very limited," Chand reasoned.
Currently, the sale of accessories make for around 10 per cent of the overall Wills Lifestyle sales, which the company plans to double, on the back of new range and more focus on current trends.
Ethnicwear is another dominant category for women, and although Wills Lifestyle primarily stands for westernwear, the company is looking at introducing fusionwear in an attempt to offer wider range under the same roof and thereby boost sales, Chand added according to industry estimates, the market for premium brand garments is close to Rs 2,000 crore and is growing at 15 per cent while the branded ready-to-wear garments market is pegged at Rs 9,000 crore. The total garments industry is pegged at close to Rs 25,000 crore, dominated by unorganised players.