In an attempt to widen its portfolio, gifts and greeting company Archies Limited has entered the apparel business and is offering tee shirts under the brand name 'Ginger Lemon'.
"The inspiration was to replicate the humour from our greeting cards into tee shirts and offer a product to suit individual buying and not as a gift proposition only," Anil Moolchandani, chairman and managing director, Archies Limited said.
Targeted at the youth, the tee shirts will be priced between Rs 325 and Rs 399. There will be 40 designs to start with. The company plans to introduce new designs each month replacing older ones. The tee shirts will be available across Archies stores and other multi-brand apparel stores. The shirts are being sourced from the textile town of Tirupur in Tamil Nadu. The company hopes the tee shirts will contribute 10 per cent to the turnover by 2010-11. Archies holds over 60 per cent share of the greeting cards' market, with cards accounting for 33 per cent of its overall turnover and the rest comes from the sale of gifts.
The company will also enter a new segment of luxury toys and accessories for infants, this year. Archies has tied up with US based soft toys and infant accessories maker GUND for new-born babies. "We see great opportunity in this segment since not many organised players are present in the category and the ones present offer a very expensive value proportion for these products," Moolchandani said.
GUND's portfolio includes soft toys , apparel, accessories and even room decor products for new borns.
Last month, Archies had entered into a licensing agreement with UK's leading brand Paper Island to market and distribute its flagship brand Fizzy Moon in India. "Fizzy Moon's branded teddy bears will give us another foothold in the industry," Moolchandani said.
Archies already has tie-ups with international brands like Carlton Cards, Expressions Gifts Co (UK), Russberrie (UK) -a designer company and pioneers in soft toys, to source gifts. Apart from advertising in print and television , the company has revamped its online portal,
