Wildcraft betting high on its apparels business

Wildcraft, the brand best known for its backpacks and adventure gears, is planning to double sales and touch Rs 1,000 crores by 2020. Wildcraft, the brand that makes backpacks, rucksacks, camping and hiking equipment, among others, entered the footwear and clothing segment two-and-a-half years ago. The new segments is contributing significantly to sales as the company is expecting two-third of its revenue to come from gear and one-third from clothing and footwear. By 2020, Gaurav Dublish, Co-Founder, Wildcraft expects, 45 per cent of the business to come from clothing and footwear, which will be spread equally. The target may seem too high now but the brand in inducing a heavy flow of capital from VCs and has laid out a plan to achieve its goals. Dublish says, last fiscal, their retail sales was Rs 400 crores and this year the company aims for 35-40 per cent rise to touch Rs 550-600 crores.

Investing firms are happy with the performance of the brand so far. Last year, one of the patrons, Sequoia Capital had invested Rs 100 crores, after investing Rs 70 crores in 2013. The brand is also set to enter the primary market with an IPO in some time this year.

Wildcraft is one of the few non-tech startups in the country which have seen a surge in revenue and valuation in the last few years. The company has been growing at more than 50 per cent year-on-year in the last five years. It has three manufacturing plants in India — two in Karnataka and one in Himachal.