Prateek Lifestyle plans Rs 350 cr expansion

Prateek Lifestyle, the retail arm of Bangalore-based apparel manufacturer Prateek Apparels, has charted out a major retail expansion of its value lifestyle format 'Coupon' and kidswear brand 'Kanz' across the country at an investment of Rs 350 crore.

The company would raise this amount through a combination of promoter funding, debt and equity.

The six-month-old retail venture, which currently has two Coupon malls - one each at Bangalore and Raipur in Chhattisgarh with a combined carpet area of 50,000 square feet - plans to add 12 to 15 stores each year for the next two years, thereby occupying approximately one million sq ft of retail space.

"The parent company has been providing design to manufacturing to delivery solutions to most of the leading brands and retailers," group MD Pradeep Agarwal told.

With strong understanding of fashion trends and Indian consumers, we thought this was the right time to exploit opportunities in the growing retail space

According to industry estimates, the Indian retail market, which is the fifth largest retail destination globally, is expected to grow from $342 billion in 2007 to $427 billion by 2010. Of this, the organised retail, which at present accounts for 4 per cent of the total market, is likely to increase its share to 22 per cent by 2010.

Coupon malls, with an average size of 30,000 sq ft each, would be opened in metros and mini-metros, besides potential tier-II and tier-III towns.

Apart from Bangalore, National Capital Region, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata, other regions that are on the company's radar include Hyderabad, Kochi, Kozhikode, Nagpur, Pune and Lucknow. "We should be having eight to 10 stores in south itself," he added.

Prateek had entered into a licensing agreement with European kidswear brand Kanz in September 2007.

"We already have exclusive brand outlets for Kanz at Delhi, Ludhiana, Kolkata, Mumbai and Bangalore. We will be taking this to 35 exclusive brand outlets by this year end and will be at 100 retail doors in totality," he said, adding that the company was also contemplating launching smaller discounted formats at a later stage.

The parent company, comprising Prateek Lifestyle, manufacturing arm Prateek Apparels and Munch Design Worx, a division that offers a range of textile and accessory designs and visual merchandise concepts to international and domestic clients, garnered revenues of Rs 275 crore last year. Exports account for about eight per cent of its revenues.