Triumph to open EBOs, further expand presence in metros

With India’s innerwear market growing aggressively, Triumph feels it’s an under-penetrated segment. “Especially the segment we are in, the mass premium segment. The category is growing by 20 to 25 percent year-on-year. Triumph has had a successful 2012, 2013 and 2014 with year-on-year growth in excess of 35 percent,” says Shalindra Fernando, Triumph’s General Manager for India and Sri Lanka.

EBOs in the pipeline

For Spring/Summer, the brand has on offer Body Make Up, a T-shirt bra range. “We launched this last year and now have a fresh set of colours. We have T-shirt bras with geometric prints developed in India. This is the first proper local collaboration we have had. These T-shirt bras have ethnic print colours. We also have a lace bra with a PU cup,” elaborated Fernando. The company aims to open EBOs this year with at least a couple of stores in major metros.

Talking about lingerie retail in India, Fernando says, “Trade channels and key accounts with more prominence are supporting the innerwear market. Innerwear has a bigger role in e-commerce. Traditional MBO outlets are doing a decent job. The only area where we see some sluggishness is in own retail. Lingerie inner wear has never been successful in creating brand stores.”

The brand is with 200 large format counters across five to six large format chains and 600 MBOs as well as two master franchise stores in Mumbai and Chennai. Brand is also online with five to six e-retailers. “Key account in modern trade is adding outlets to the tune of 5 to 10 percent a year. We are present in 200 counters in key accounts. We add 20 to 25 outlets a year. But metros are saturated, so large formats are pushing into Tier II and III. But the more you push out the more difficult it gets to sell branded lingerie for Rs 1,500. So if 30 large format outlets open up maybe we can be present in 20 of them,” informs Fernando.

Changing mindset boosting segment

Fernando points out on an average woman own 10 to 15 bras and just one or two may be a branded good quality product. “There are about 30 million women who can afford our product in India. If they buy one bra a year that’s 30 million pieces but even if you put all brands together, it’s not close to that number. It will barely get to 10 million pieces. So there’s a huge volume opportunity out there. That’s what will drive this category at a 20 to 30 percent rate for the next 5 to 10 years,” he adds.

Triumph targets affluent fashionable women consumers. With a shift in buying patterns of consumers, they are getting affluent and sophisticated. “They realize lingerie is not only about basic functionality. They realise through the media there are different types of lingerie for different occasions. That fuels their desire to buy. Then they move on to T-shirt bras, sports bras, tummy tuckers, lace bras. They see lingerie as a way of expressing themselves. So the conversion keeps happening,” opines Fernando.

At this point, the company plans to focus on metros and Tier I cities, since it finds there is plenty of opportunity in metros and Tier I. “That’s enough to sustain our business for the short term. Triumph will go to Tier II and III with cheaper products,” avers Fernando. However, he thinks that transacting across states is very complicated. “There are inefficiencies. Taxation is not consistent. States have different regulations. It takes us longer to take the product to the market. Exchanging products becomes difficult. GST may be the way forward. There has to be consistent entry documentation. The Northeast can be very challenging to send products to. If those things are streamlined, the product flow across India will get easier. We can save money and pass on the benefit to the consumers,” sums up Fernando.