After IPO, Valentine plans aggressive expansion

“We are the first loungewear brand to launch a public issue. We have seen a good response for our IPO. On the first day itself the rate for listing was 20 percent higher. Our HNI portion was oversubscribed by two-and-a-half times and many Bollywood

celebrities participated in our IPO,” explains Harshad Thakkar, Managing Director Valentine. The company is now looking at aggressively expanding its retail presence apart from launching an e-commerce platform.

Elaborating on the plans for the brand, Thakkar says, “After our public issue we plan to roll out exclusive brand outlets. Now, we have 13,000 MBOs and LFS all put together. We plan to open 10 stores in Mumbai, after the first 10 stores in Mumbai, we shall look to expand to other markets.”

Valentine brand was launched in 1999. Thakkar says, until 1995 there was no industry for loungewear in India, people just mixed and matched and wore whatever they found. “The relax wear clothing line was developed after the economic boom in India, people had higher disposable income they have started spending more on leisure clothing. Before there were not many players in this industry but now we have seen that many knitwear players are expanding their product portfolio,” he adds.

The current styles in ladies consist of long tops and pajamas. In men’s lounge wear, mostly stripers with bottoms are doing well. Colours in toddler wear are brighter, while the men’s line has sober colors. The main fabric used in this category is largely cotton and knits; wovens are not even one percent in the industry.

“Our latest collection has all these elements; we have a theme every season. The winter collection has more of track suits. We are also launching travel wear this season. We have seen that the tourist industry in India is growing and we have observed that the consumer wants to wear something different than the regular stuff that they wear for traveling. The designs are close to the outerwear, the colours are fresh and bright. Capris and shorts form a major part of the collection. We shall launch this in mid-May and this will hit the stores by August,” tell Thakkar.

“We had a modest start with about Rs 28 lakh, turnover that year. And every year we are growing at 130 percent. Last year, we did business worth Rs 102 crores,” he sums up.