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The Textile Magazine
SEPTEMBER 2011
tail business of Arvind has grown four fold, from Rs.
200 crores to Rs. 820 crores with a handsome profit
improvement. In 2009, Arvind demerged the division
into two companies – Arvind Lifestyle Brands Ltd. and
Arvind Retail Ltd. with the long-term objective of listing
the companies in the stock exchange.
Recounting the success story, Mr. J. Suresh, Manag-
ing Director & CEO of Arvind Brands & Retail sub-
sidiaries, says: “In 2005, we had in our portfolio one
strong brand Arrow and the successful retail opera-
tion of Megamart centered around Bangalore. Our
long-term mission was to be one of the largest Brands
& Retail companies in the apparel space. To achieve
this, we needed a portfolio of strong brands and much
larger retail operations with an all-India footprint”.
Driven by this mission, Mr. Suresh and his team
started working on building a portfolio of brands and
revamping and relaunching brands in the portfolio,
Arrow & Flying Machine. Both the brands relaunched
with new positioning and new retail identity have
grown five times in the last four years and are poised
to become Rs. 500-crore and Rs. 100-crore brands
respectively by next year.
Meanwhile, Arvind had during the last four years
launched five international brands – US Polo Asso-
ciation, Izod, Gant, Energie and Cherokee. USPA is
already a Rs. 100-crore brand and Cherokee a Rs.
75-crore brand. During this period Arvind also opened
200+ exclusive brands stores covering a retail area of
two lakh sq.ft.
Mr. Suresh adds: “As we were revamping and
strengthening our brand portfolio, we completely rein-
vented our value retail chain Megamart”.
Megamart which was started in 1995 as a factory
outlet to liquidate surplus stock metamorphed into a
value retail chain with unique proposition of selling
world class brands at value prices and offering excel-
lent customer experience.
The Megamart brand portfolio was strengthened
with the addition of value brands like Excalibur, Rug-
gers, Newport, Colt and Cherokee. In addition, wo-
menswear / kidswear and lifestyle accessories were
added to the Megamart Portfolio. New large format
stores called ‘Big Megamart’ with retail space of
40,000 sq.ft. to 50,000 sq.ft. selling more than 250
brands at value prices under one roof were opened.
Megamart small format stores have also expanded
at a scorching pace. Megamart has a footprint of 210
stores, with retail space of six lakh sq.ft. in 75 towns. It
plans to be a 500-store chain with a Rs. 1,200-crore
turnover by 2014-15.
Mr. Suresh is very upbeat about the future of Brands
& Retail subsidiaries: “We have a unique strategy of
serving consumers across the income pyramid; Mass
to Affluent. We sell shirts at Rs. 400 and we also sell
Rs. 5,000 shirts. Having strengthened our Menswear
cover story