Black to woo Indian Diaspora in Hong Kong, Australia

After establishing itself as a strong garments brand in North India, Black has drawn out plans to attract the Indian Diaspora with its latest offerings. The company will sell its clothes in Hong Kong and Australia through channel partners. “We have been receiving a lot of inquiries from NRI’s

who have set up shops abroad. They want to house our brand. Our channel partners will sell Black’s merchandise with our brand name. In Hong Kong we are looking at supplying to 50 stores. We also want to tap the opportunities in the South Asian countries,” says Satish Dhingra, Director, Black Apparel India.

The company with the tag line ‘Dressing for every moment’, is looking at penetrating further into the North Indian market. The brand already has a strong retail presence here. There are 40 exclusive brand outlets, 32 of these are company operated and the rest are franchisees. “Initially, we had tie-ups with some multi brand outlets and large format stores, but those have closed down. Now we are solely concentrating on our own stores,” says Dhingra. Most of their stores range between 800 to 2,500 sq. ft. These are in cities of Punjab, Delhi, UP, Rajasthan. Dhingra believes that this region can potentially have 150 stores. “In the coming few months we want to capitalize on places like Jammu and Pathankot among others. We are looking at adding five more stores by March 2010 in cities like Delhi, Jalandhar and Amritsar. And by 2012, the brand will have a total of 75 stores,” Dhingra informs. On an average each store is to generate revenues of up to Rs 70 lakh per annum.

Dhingra feels to get volumes in their business winter gives a lot more opportunity. “We would rather not step into markets which have climatic barriers. On an average a consumer shops between Rs 200-3,000 in summers, and in winter it goes up to Rs 20,000-40,000. Given this difference I do not think the south or Mahrashtra market offers much potential for us,” he explains. However, he does make an exception with Hyderabad where he is interested in opening a store.

“Our clothes are meant for anyone between 16 to 50 years. Our clientele are those who value high fashion,” Dhingra says. The brand recently launched its spring/summer collection. It’s a mix of vibrant and pastels colors. The main color palette is lemon and green with earthy tones. In trousers they have focused on black and white. The collection also has graffiti T-shirts.