Cottons by Century eyes women's wear

Cottons by Century, men's ready-to-wear garments division of Century Textiles and Industries, is planning to enter the women's wear segment by the end of this financial year.

"Women have been endorsing the company's men's range of kurtas and pyjamas and have been sending feedback, requesting us to introduce similar product line for them, too. Besides, through an in-house study, we have identified a huge vacuum for women's ready-made cotton range in the organised sector, and hence decided to foray into this category," Mahendra Padhy, national head (marketing), Cottons by Century, said.

Initially, the company will launch its summer collections, including cotton tops and salwar kameez, targeted at the mid-to-premium classes. They will be sold through separate stores under the Cottons by Century brand. The rollout is expected to take place in February-March 2007, he said. The company opened its seventh store Hyderabad on Monday.

Besides, the company may open over 200 exclusive stores by the end of next financial year.

"Based on the national retail mapping, which is further divided into regional mapping, we are planning to open 37 more stores across the country by March 2007, taking the total retail space to 2.5 lakh sqft. Our idea is to have around 300 exclusive stores covering 6 lakh sqft of retail space by 2007-08," he said.

These include a store each in Visakhapatnam, Vizianagaram and Rajahmundry by the first quarter of 2007, and is in addition to the exclusive stores planned for women's wear, he added.

According to Padhy, the company is in talks with property and franchisee consultants Knight Frank, Franchisee India, Cushman & Wakefield and Franchisee Plus for identifying suitable locations and strategic partners for the new stores.

"Each of these stores would involve an investment of between Rs 20 lakh and Rs 30 lakh and would occupy 1,000-10,000 sqft," he said.

Cottons by Century currently has 88 stores, including 16 franchisees. Plans are under way to open 10 stores "" two in Bangalore and one each in Thiruvananthapuram, Coimbatore, Mangalore, Lucknow, Varanasi, Jalandhar, Indore and Goa "" by December this year.

The company posted a turnover of Rs 24 crore last fiscal, and is projecting Rs 50 crore this year. "With the single-brand strategy, we are targeting to achieve a turnover of Rs 100-125 crore next fiscal," Padhy said.