Royal Classic to increase retail thrust

Royal Classic Group, the Rs 220 crore textiles firm, is increasing the thrust on its flagship brand Classic Polo. The company is investing close to Rs 3 crore to expand its retail presence.

According to the company, it has planned a steady and aggressive retail expansion plan for the year 2005- 2007, with a target to reach 50 exclusive retail stores. During 2004 it had nine stores, plans 20 stores for the current year, 35 units for 2006 and seeks to reach the 50 target by 2007.

The investment for each store is about Rs 25 lakhs and each store is 1000- 15,000 sqft in size. Over the course of August and September, the target cities for exclusive stores will be Indore, Calicut, Trissur, Kochi, Mysore, and Chennai. The focus regions for retail expansion plans would be the southern and western markets, followed by the northern and eastern markets.

Said Anand Iyer, Brand Head of Classic Polo: "Last year (2004-05) was focussed on backward integration to increase the production capacity in the area of cotton, spinning enhancement and woven business, besides adding shirts and trousers factories. We are now focussing towards front-end expansions in retailing."

"The domestic market has a good potential with the market matured enough to accept valuable added products at higher price. The current apparel market is growing at 20 per cent and we intend to tap this sector."

He added that in their recent internal survey, they found Classic Polo was well accepted in all price ranges and was looked upon as a brand with value for money. He found that the brand awareness grew more through their own exclusive retail showrooms than through advertising.

Royal Classic is looking at a turnover of Rs 300 crore for 2005-06, in which Classic Polo will contribute Rs 35 crore, and its recently acquired Smash brand chipping in with Rs 20 crore.

Royal Classic will use the Smash brand to foray into the innerwear segment in the first phase. This will be followed up with sports wear at a later stage.