The over 60-year-old shirt brand, has stuck to just one store when most others have gone mass. Will this strategy work?
The Charagh Din shirt store at Wodehouse, Colaba, Mumbai, is an imposing structure. Four-storied measuring 10,000-square-feet in area, the store beckons the shopper to walk in. Plush interiors are combined with an easy-to-navigate floor plan. Visitors are clearly at ease here.
“We pamper our guests,” declares Raju Daswani, promoter of Charagh Din. Each floor of the store, he says, is devoted to a certain size of merchandise. So, if level one, which is the ground floor, has formal, casual and party-wear shirts - all of size 42 - the first floor or level two, caters to size 37, 46 and 48. The second floor or level three deals with size 40 and 41, while the third floor or level four is about size 38, 39 and 44.
“At any given point, we have 20,000 to 25,000 shirts on display,” he says. “The shopping experience is unique here.”
But for all this, the fact remains there is only one Charagh Din store in the country. “We have no other branch or outlet anywhere else,” says Daswani. The question is: Does this niche positioning make sense in a category where most others players are going mass?
The apparel market in India, for the record, is estimated to be worth Rs 16,500 crore and is growing at a CAGR of about 11 per cent. The last two decades, in particular, has seen a steady influx of international brands, from Levi’s to Wrangler, Allen Solly to Louis Philippe. With each entry, the aspiration and glamour quotient has only grown, even as entry barriers such as price points have dropped.
Most players have been quick to capitalise on this taking their apparel brands to different towns and cities. Take the Aditya Birla-promoted Van Heusen, for example. In the last few years, the brand has moved from being a formal shirt to capturing the men's formal wear space to expanding into areas such as women's wear, youth wear etc. Turnover has also grown at the same time. Van Heusen, which has sales of Rs 380 crore at the moment, is likely to touch Rs 500-crore by the end of this financial year. Shital Kumar Mehta, chief operating officer of Van Heusen, says, the focus on pushing the brand will continue into the future. “From 85 exclusive Van Heusen showrooms, the plan is to take it to 125 stores by the end of this year,” he says.
Charagh Din, which also competes in the same space as Van Heusen does, pales in comparison to the latter. Sales are just Rs 30 crore per annum.
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Daswani says he has no plans to expand the retail footprint of Charagh Din. He has invested instead in taking his products online. Charagh Din, for the record, has a large online store where all shirts on display offline have been put up there. “On an average, I have 500-600 people visiting my store per day. The number is far greater online.”
Of the 750,000 loyal customers that Daswani says he has, the bulk is online. “I am satisfied with the response to the online initiative. We went online when most others weren’t even doing it. I have nothing to complain,” he says.
But rivals have another view to offer. “I am not sure how strong his online sales are,” says an executive with a rival apparel firm. “We may all like to believe that e-commerce is a great way to push a brand, but the fact remains that people prefer touching and feeling the product. That’s where a retail store comes handy,” he says.
But Daswani is not biting the bullet yet, he is too busy revamping the brand image of Charagh Din at the moment. In the last few years, Charagh Din has moved from being a brand that caters to an older audience - males in the age-group of 37 - to men who are 23-24. “We even have kids in the age -group of 18 and 19 visiting our store,” says Daswani.
Even as this young audience makes a beeline for his store, Daswani has kicked off a green campaign to “spur youth to action”. Charagh Din ads on print, TV and outdoor these days speak about the need to save the environment. “It’s a subject raging like a fireball. So why not do our bit?” he says. With this he hopes to keep the connect going with the youth.