Madura to expand The Collective

Madura Garments Lifestyle Retail will set up its high-end luxury stores, The Collective,

in three new cities next year besides expanding in the existing locations. Madura Lifestyle, promoted by the Aditya Birla Group, currently operates two such stores. With a store each in Mumbai and Bangalore under ‘The Collective’ banner it sells high-end luxury apparel and accessories from brands across the world. The third store will be opened in New Delhi shortly and the plan is to explore opportunities in Chennai, Chandigarh and Hyderabad by next year. Also they plan to add more stores in Mumbai and Delhi.

One store entails an investment of Rs 8 crores and the company is likely to make an investment of about Rs 40 crores in the next year. Despite the downturn, the existing two stores owned by the company have already reached a break-even point. The Bangalore store that was launched in October 2008, registered a 35 per cent increase in turnover, while the one in Mumbai launched last year is also registering strong growth.

The stores house high-end apparel brands such as Armani Collezioni, Adriano Goldschmeid, Duchamp, Fred Perry, Hackett, Hugo Boss, Kenneth Cole, Ted Baker, True Religion and Versace Collection. In the coming season new brands for men and women will be introduced. The company also sells accessories including watches, cufflinks, shoes, etc, by leading brands and value-added services such as made-to-measure, spa, dry cleaning and alterati