Blue Tonic: To unveil premium shirts range

Recording good year-on-year growth for its brand Blue Tonic, Topsons Blue the makers of the brand is planning slow, yet steady retail expansion. The company is looking at increasing its product range by introducing a premium shirts collection.

“To continuously evolve and adapt has definitely been a challenge,”opines Rajesh Sunder Ghanshani, MD, Topsons Blue, adding, “In the present market scenario with stiff competition, to create a distinct edge has been one of the greatest challenge apart from finding and retaining the right HR and arriving at the perfect price points.”

Premium shirts in the offing

The company offers entire clothing lines including jeans, trousers, T-shirts through its EBOs. “We are experimenting with different price points. Blue Tonic garments retail between Rs 1,395 and Rs 1,995 and have introduced an economy range in shirts with the same margins called BLTNC. It retails between Rs 895 and Rs 1,295,” explains Ghanshani.

During the forthcoming festive season, the brand plans to introduce a premium label of shirts that will retail at around Rs 2,000 to Rs 3,000. Elaborating on the season’s collection, Ghanshani says, “For the coming season, we have focused on solids with a variety of fabrics like cordrouy, linens, moleskins (with a swede feel). Colour stories are bold, bright and some of them are even florescent continuing the neon trend from last season. The cut is basic with most of the detailing and styling being very subtle and hidden.”

Retail and product growth plans

As of now, Blue Tonic has four EBOs and five exclusive shop in shops. The brand is also available in leading MBOs and chain stores across India and select stores around the globe. Going forward, the company plans to focus on gradual expansion through MBOs, shop in shops and EBOs.

“We do not intend entering the LFS format at least for another year, however, we are open and assessing tie ups with several MBOs for our new format of shop in shops, franchise offers and EBOs within malls on commission basis. But we are in no rush to execute the plans as we are delibrate slow and steady movers. We are over cautious as we do not want any of our business partners or associates to lose money,” explains Ghanshani.

Topsons was established in 1961 as a multi brand chain of outlets on Linking Road in Bandra. Sensing the need to have its own brand, the company launched Blue Tonic to cater to rising demand.