Fashioning a fresh course

Atul Agrawaal, general manager, Buddy Davis, has his job cut out for him. In the last five months or so he has drawn up a blue print to bring the apparel brand to the notice of the youth brigade.

He admits that over the past couple of years, Buddy Davis' recall as a brand has diminished. The brand is owned by Maral Fashions, a division of the Rs 497-crore Maral Overseas Ltd.

"My job is to rejuvenate the brand and generate footfalls," he says.

Youth is a viable market and he quotes retail consultant KSA Technopak figures to buttress his point: people in the 20-30 age group, on an average, spend about Rs 60,000 a year. Of this, 6 to 7 per cent is spent on apparel.

Little surprise then that Buddy Davis is set to expand its operations in India and overseas. Currently, the brand is retailed from 25 exclusive outlets which will go up to 50 by the end of the year.

The new franchisee stores will come up in cities like Colombo, Dhaka, Kathmandu, Dubai, Sharjah and Muscat. "We want to grow by 1 lakh sq ft retail space annually," says Agrawaal.

The apparel brand is also planning to enter the fashion innerwear market. By May, the Buddy Davis brand would adorn lingerie and G-strings.

Also on the cards are a range perfumes, deodorants, belts and bags. Agrawaal says that it's only in the underdeveloped markets that a lifestyle brand is associated with just one product.

"The Indian market has changed. It's not feasible to just sell T-shirts. We need to diversify as the consumer wants a gamut of products. Our aim is to supply the whole wardrobe of a fashion-conscious youth. That has been the trend in the West for sometime and in India it's just surfacing," he explains.

To be more in sync with the youth image, Buddy Davis has introduced themes and storylines in its collections.

"Our three new lines this summer "" Romantica, Deserttrail and Energy "" are urban, funky and are to be used for different social occasions," informs Agrawaal.

The brand will also launch a range of T-shirts made of cotton and bamboo blends and a collection of auto-stripper socks, which will be marketed as a fashion statement.

The brand has also appointed a new advertising agency, Two HMP, to take care of its campaigns. A new round of print and television ads will debut in April. Its annual advertising budget is close to Rs 2.5 crore.

Agrawaal is confident that the company has managed to plug holes in Buddy Davis' supply chain. "We outsource 70 per cent of our products and earlier they would hit the stores midway through the season resulting in a loss of customers," he says.

The steps to improve the supply chain as well as the new initiatives, hopes Agrawaal, who joined Maral Fashions in October, 2003, will help double the average daily footfall in a single store from the current 100.

It will also help in meeting the brand's projected turnover of Rs 25 crore for the fiscal 2004-05. The brand is expected to close at Rs 15 crore for 2003-2004.

"Our core competence is knits. We plan to stick to it. We will also continue with the "foreign" image (in the brand name and the models used). Hopefully, by next year our brand will be more visible," concludes Agrawaal.