Esprit riding high on India’s consumer spending

Esprit the international youthful lifestyle brand offering smart, affordable luxury clothes has come up with three colors to celebrate the spirit of women especially on Women’s Day. The Glide through Esprit Collection spring/summer ’10 has a range of stunning colors, styles

and patterns for women. The new collection is being offered across all Esprit’s exclusive brand outlets from New Delhi to Chandigarh, Ahmedabad to Mumbai, and Hyderabad to Chennai.

The high street brand that had entered India with a tie up with Madura Garments, a wholly owned subsidiary of Aditya Birla Nuvo, in 2005, is also looking to doubling its topline in 2010-11. The brand recently came up with a fresh strategy to reach its goals. It includes offering value-added products at better price points. The fashion brand, which operates in more than 640 directly managed retail stores in 40 countries across

the globe, has forecast revenues of over Rs 70 crores for financial year 2009-10 from its Indian operations alone. The brand offers 12 product lines encompassing women’s wear, men’s wear, kid’s wear, as well as accessories.

At present, Esprit has 50 stores in India these are in Mumbai, Delhi, Ahmedabad and Chennai, Ludhiana, Chandigarh Pune, Hyderabad and Bangalore. In the next financial year, it plans to open stores in Kolkata and some other cities. According to Manjula Tiwari, COO, Esprit Madura Garments this year they have reported a 100 per cent CAGR on a year-on-year basis. She adds that the India operations are vital to the overall revenues. Currently, Esprit is the fourth largest brand globally in high street fashion. Tiwari says, even though the Indian market is important to them, it currently does not contribute a significant percentage to the label’s annual revenues of $5 billion. However, since consumer spends are moving north it makes them very optimistic about India. Esprit has recently lowered its prices by 25 per cent on several offerings to attract more customers in India.

Apart from Esprit, Madura Garments also owns and distributes several other well-known apparel brands like Allen Solly, Louis Phillip, Van Huesen, Peter England and S F Jeans. Although, Madura Garments is consciously moving from ‘wardrobe’ to ‘lifestyle’ image, the group is present in both ‘lifestyle’ and ‘value’ segments through its subsidiaries.