Cotton County to focus on teenagers

Cotton County the ready-to-wear brand that offers the biggest range of 100 per cent cotton garments at affordable prices for all ages is planning to shift focus to youngsters now. “Though we cater to all age groups, now our main thrust would be on the 15-25 year olds. Now 75 per

cent of men’s wear our range will be for this age group,” says Dharminder Batra, VP Marketing, Cotton County. The brand which started five years ago saw 10-15 per cent decline in sales as a result of the economic slowdown. “But after March 2010, we are expecting our growth trend of 10-15 per cent to continue. Orders and inquiries have stared floating in and we are coming up with 150 new showrooms,” Batra informs. Operating primarily on a franchisee model, Cotton County says the challenges they faced during the slowdown were quite big. “If sales were low, it would not be viable for a franchisee player. We continued giving them fixed commissions and ensured that the stocks kept running through the difficult times,” Batra explains.

With their focus shifting to teenagers, the brand plans to introduce more fashion element in their range. There will be more of cargos, shirts, corduroys and T-shirts in the new range. At the moment, 70 per cent of Cotton County is for men while 25 per cent is for women. With an eye on the Commonwealth games and IPL-3, the brand has also come up with a sportswear range that will meet the aspirations of sports lovers. They have introduced track-pants, T shirts, Bermudas, shorts and the like. The brand which has 600 retail points at the moment plans to add 150 more by March 2010.

After consolidating themselves in the domestic market, Cotton County is now eyeing the European market as well. “Everything is planned and we plan to roll out in the next three months in the European markets. We would be supplying to big vendors who would be distributing our products in the continent. We do not plan to open our shops there,” Batra says.
Within India, Cotton County is planning to launch their products in multi brand outlets with shop-in-shop concept. The brand has already aligned with 20 MBOs to test run this concept. “We would be placing our new menswear label ‘French Republic’ in these MBOs. We are looking at an investment of Rs 3-4 lakh from the MBO and a space of 300-400 sq. ft. inside the store,” Batra explains.

It may be noted, that Cotton County also has a range for women and children. Tazo is their kids wear brand while Femme is aimed at the young women between 16 to 30 years, it includes T shirts, party wear, semi formal shirts, denims, capris and the like.
With a current turnover of Rs 140 crore, the company is looking to a 10-15 per cent growth in the next financial year.