Chemistry eyeing women in Tier II cites

Chemistry, the well known women’s wear brand is looking at expansion in Tier II and Tier III cities. The five-year-old brand is now chalking out plans to open exclusive Chemistry stores in cities like Chandigarh, Ludhiana, Vishakapatnam and Jaipur. At the moment there are 16 Chemistry

exclusive stores located mostly in the metros like Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Kolkata and Hyderabad. In all, the brand is looking at adding five new EBOs in the next three months, a total of 12 by the end of next financial year. “We have 16 stores across India; most of these are company-owned. So far, most of our growth has happened in the west and south. Now, we are looking at the north and east more seriously. After the recession, our major expansion plans are in the east keeping Kolkata in mind. In the south we are experimenting with the Chennai market,” explains Peush Sikka, Operations and Merchandising Planning Head, Esjay International, the makers of the Chemistry brand.
The brand whose main target is the young city-bred woman recently launched a line called Miss Chemistry. It’s targeted at the 18 to 16 year olds “The range has dresses, tops, tunics, T-shirts and the like. In a couple of years, we may even launch a teen range,” Sikka informs. But at the moment they are concentrating on the existing lines.
Sikka says, they are offering trend-driven fast fashion to the Indian woman. “This means, we bringing international trends to the Indian market and fitting them to our model. We are not yet equipped to have a consumer-driven fast fashion,” he says. At Chemistry, 10 per cent of their store capacity is renewed every two weeks. “So 10 per cent of whatever we are holding is new every week. If we are holding 300 styles, 30 styles or 40 styles are new to the store in that week,” Sikka says. It may be noted that Esjay International is primarily an export-based company supplying to brands like Zara and Armani.
In the next few months, Chemistry plans to open EBOs in Chennai, Kolkata and Delhi. The average size of these stores will be 1,200 sq ft while the investment per sq ft will be around Rs 2,000 to Rs 3,500. “We are opening as fast as possible because the market is looking bright and in the last six months our sales have grown tremendously. On a year-on-year comparison we have grown around 50 per cent,” Sikka says.
That’s not all, for retail expansion, the brand has tied-up with Central. “We are already present in four locations. Wherever they go, we will tag along. We are exploring Lifestyle, Shoppers Stop kind of formats as well. But this is the second phase of our growth. Multibrand outlets would be the third phase of growth for Chemistry,” Sikka explains.
Meanwhile, the brand is also looking at expanding their accessories range beyond jewellery. In 2011, they plan to add shoes and bags to their range of accessories.