Madura Garments plans brand extension

To garner additional market share and increase its retail presence, Madura Garments, which is into branded apparel, is developing sub-brands and brand extensions. Madura Garments is making its moves to get large share of this space, as the Rs 4,000 crore branded ready-to-wear segment in India is expected to reach Rs 10,300 crore by 2011.

Recently, the company has launched Peter England Elite, a sub-brand of its popular mid-priced brand Peter England. Further it plans to leverage the brand's equity by opening family retail stores under Peter England.

The stores will sell apparel for men, women and children under the Peter England brand for all age groups. The company is also planning to launch more extensions such as Peter England elements for casual dresses.

Vikram Rao, director, Aditya Birla Management Corporation and business head, textiles and apparel business, Aditya Birla Nuvo said, "Last year the company realised the need to move from wholesale to retail model and shift from product positioning to lifestyle focus. Peter England would be poised to take the appropriate positioning in the growing mid-price market." He added that the company intends to grow Peter England to a Rs 500-crore brand in next three years, compared with the current revenues of Rs 270 crore at retail points.

Peter England Elite, catering to the sub-premium segment, will be initially launched in Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Pune and Nagpur. Going forward, the company plans to increase its retail presence. At the moment, the company sells in 2000-odd multi-brand outlets, 250 exclusive brand outlets and around 30 company-owned stores. The company plans to triple this in the next three years.

The family stores are expected to be larger. Rao said, "Peter England store would be a speciality family stores of about 10,000-15000 sq ft each." Within the next three years, the company hopes to increase its sales from company-owned outlets to 50 per cent, as opposed to the current 30 per cent.

Analysts believe that this strategy is driven by the need to protect its brand from the increasing domination of private labels in the growing organised retail segment. "Marketers of brands such as Peter England need to protect themselves from private labels by reaching out to customers," said Pankaj Gupta, practice head, consumer and retail, Tata Strategic Managment Group (TSMG). "In the current scenario, it is important for such brands to expand their retail presence. Also since they will be opening stores, it is better to cater to a wider audience by targeting women and children as this reduces risk and spreads the cost of investment," he added.

Madura Garments is also exploring similar possibilities to architect extensions for its other brands such as Allen Solly and Van Heusen. "We are analysing our brands closely, as we have recruited a team of expats and consultants who are looking into the opportunities to expand the brand portfolio," said Rao. The company is also open to tie-ups with international apparel brands to further increase its offerings.

Currently, Madura Garments has a bouquet of lifestyle apparel brands such as Allen Solly, Van Heusen and Louis Philippe, while it has tied up with fashion brand Espirit to cater to the needs of the premium segment. By leveraging and expanding the Peter England brand, the company hopes to have a stronger presence across the value for money segment.