Pepe to diversify into innerwear, timewear

Pepe Jeans is looking at rolling out its range of innerwear and timewear in the country. The move is in line with increasing its presence in the accessories space.

Pepe already has launched its fragrances and eyewear from its global accessories basket in the country. Globally, Pepe has diversified into accessories like timewear, eyewear, footwear, fragrances, and innerwear in the last three-five years.

Chetan Shah, managing director, PJL Clothing India, told Business Standard that the plans were still in the exploratory stage. "Pepe is a widely recognised brand in India. It has potential to evolve into more lifestyle categories. With accessories the brand covers more part of the life of our target audience," he said

The company plans to appoint licencees to expand its scale of operations rather than do it alone. "We want to evolve to a stage where you find our eyewear at optician outlets. That's the desirable scale," said Shah explaining why the company was considering the licensee route to scale up its accessory business.

Shah, however, clarified that most of the accessories would be imported into the country. For instance, the company will import accessories like eyewear, timewear and fragrances. However Shah said they could look at manufacturing innerwear in India because the country has managed to enhance quality control in textiles.

With a market share of 20 per cent in the premium jeans segment, the accessories attempt will further help Pepe India consolidating its presence in the country. Since its entry into India in 1989, the Indian operations contribute a bulk of the parent's turnover.

Shah said Pepe India was the second largest global market for Pepe's global operations in volume and the third largest in value for the last two-three years. In India, the Pepe brand sells through 75 stand-alone stores and 1,500 multi-brand premium outlets.