Da Milano to expand portfolio

Da Milano the luxury leather brand is investing Rs 12-15 crores on an aggressive expansion

plan in all major metros and Tier I-II cities. The company recently opened three exclusive stores in Mumbai and one each in Hyderabad, Pune and Jaipur. At present it has 24 EBOs sized around 800-1,200 sq. ft. in area and has plans to open another 35 in the next 12-18 months. Some of these will be launched in cities like Ahmedabad, Chennai, Kolkata and Bangalore.

According to Sahil Malik, Managing Director, Da Milano Leathers, the plan is to open an exclusive store in Terminal 1B at Mumbai’s domestic airport. They have also bagged retail space at the swanky T3 terminus in New Delhi and are planning to open similar stores in domestic and international terminals at Chennai, Bangalore and Hyderabad.

The company which has its design studio in Italy and also has two state-of-the-art manufacturing units at Nalagarh in Himachal Pradesh and a tannery in Chennai in Tamil Nadu. Around 30 per cent of the company’s revenue comes from the domestic market.

Da Milano’s premium leather products include handbags, briefcases, computer bags, portfolios, among others. Prices for ladies handbags range from Rs 4,500 to Rs 10,000 and leather accessories from Rs 600 to Rs 2000. They also launched a sub-brand called ‘Fiore’ priced modestly within Rs 1,800 to Rs 3,000 especially for large format stores. Malik informs that most of their expansion plans will be operational by October 2010. They are also expanding their portfolio with ‘Rosso Brunello’, a premium high fashion footwear brand. It will be retailed through EBOS in select metros. Also they plan to launch the Da Milano Home product line comprising of lamps, photo frames, coffee tables etc.