Royal Classic Mills signs on Charu Sharma

Cricket commentator to endorse classic polo brand in the domestic market

Classic Polo, the flagship brand of the Rs 300 crore Royal Classic Mills group specialising in men's wear, has signed up cricket commentator Charu Sharma as its brand ambassador.

Anand Aiyer, brand head of Royal Classic Group, told Business Standard, "Charu Sharma has the quintessential of today's modern man with ease, comfort, passion for challenge and sportsmanship. These qualities are reflected in Classic Polo."

R Sivaram, executive director of Royal Classic Mills, pointed out that at present domestic sales constituted around a third of total turnover, with export accounting for the rest, but the company was keen to raise domestic sales.

Sharma was seen as the best candidate to act as brand ambassador in the domestic market.

The Classic Polo range was being manufactured in technical collaboration with the German company Kitaro GMBH. The brand sold garments worth Rs 14 crore in 2003-2004. The company expects sales to touch Rs 20 crore this fiscal.

Images apart, the group was aiming to become one of the leading apparel players in the domestic market and would be opening 25 more exclusive stores across the country by the year-end.

It decided to go in for owned exclusive stores as it delivered higher visibility and enabled better focus on individual customers needs.

The stores would also be used as platforms for clutter-free brand promotions.

However, in keeping with current trends in consumer behaviour, the brand will be made available in many more malls and shopping centres as well.

A new brand would also be launched by the group soon, under the name Smash.

It was popular brand in the 1990's with the Red Bull logo and has been acquired recently by Royal Classic.

Smash will be an innerwear range in the first phase and later be extended to categories like appear for shorts, gym, exercising and jogging.

Smash will be launched across south India immediately and across the country in July 2005.

To build the Smash brand, Aiyer said the company would be ploughing in Rs 4 crore immediately over and above the budgets for the Classic Polo brand.

Classic Polo was at present the only branded product of Royal Classic Mills in the domestic market, covering shirts, trousers and T-shirts.

To move up the value chain in the domestic market, the group would be investing on creation of a national brand through the planned 20 exclusive stores.

Classic Polo, launched in 2001 with Kitaro's help, had a market share of 20 per cent in the organised category.

Sivaram pointed out that Classic Polo was already a well-recognised men's lifestyle brand across India, being retailed through more than 1, multi-brand outlets, 40 shop-in-shops, numerous chain stores and exclusive stores in Bangalore, Chennai, Vizag, Coimbatore, Hyderabad and Indore.

"The company was launched in February 2001, and in four years, has grown faster than any other existing brand in India to have 20 per cent market share in the branded knitwear category," Sivaram said.

Aiyer said the company was already spending over Rs 4 crore on advertising every year, with special focus on television advertising in leading channels.

Earlier, the company was advertising mainly on regional channels in keeping with its regional presence but this policy had now been completely revamped under the new strategy to create a national brand.