Luggage major, VIP Industries Limited, would be opening 50-60 showrooms, with 15 in the eastern region.
Around four to five showrooms would be flagship stores of the 15 stores that would be set up in the eastern region. The investment in the flagship stores would be Rs 50 lakh. On the sidelines of the launch of its new showroom in Kolkata, Sudhir Jatia, managing director of VIP industries said, "This year we plan to expand by setting up 50-60 showrooms in the country, out of which about 15 showrooms would be in the eastern region."
Currently there are around 130 flagship stores in the country, out of which 11 are in the West Bengal and 22 stores in the eastern region.
The eastern region was a good market for the company and contributed around 30 per cent to the total sales.
This year, it was expected to increase by about three to four per cent, informed Jatia.
The luggage major was also looking at spending an approximate amount of Rs 15 crore this fiscal on advertising, up from Rs 10 crore last fiscal, added Jatia.
It launched its 'school bag' section in April and plans to sell around 70,000 bags, clocking in a sales amount of Rs 5 crore, this quarter.
"We have launched school bags this month for test marketing.We are a bit late since the season for this sector has already started. We hope to sell around 70,000 pieces."
The school bags were priced between Rs 300 to Rs 900.
The company mostly exported to the Middle East countries and Europe.
Last year, it had clocked exports close to Rs 70 crore, around 15 per cent of its total turnover.
This year, it hoped that exports would be consistent taking into account the 'market slowdown'.
VIP currently catered to around 3,000 retailers and plans to rope in 500-700 more to tap the medium to low-sized brands, Alfa and Aristocrat, added Jatia.
Last year, it had registered a turnover of Rs 550 crore and it plans to grow by 15 per cent, this year.
The organized luggage sector was around Rs 1,000 crore, out of which VIP occupied a 55 per cent,
