While most apparel brands reported cool summer business, Just I the men’s casual wear brand raised the heat businesswise. As Arvind Gupta, Director, Ahan Apparels puts it, “We grew by 100 per cent this summer. Brand awareness grew and we got
a lot of design inputs that helped us in formulating our strategies. We are currently standing to our promise of opening two stores a month and have 25 stores already. We wish to add another 10 by this diwali.”Currently, the brand aims to stick to its product offerings and is looking at widening its retail reach. With the target of opening two stores every month, the brand aims to have 75 stores by 2012. Gupta adds, “We are not going to expand our product portfolio. We are very strong in shirts, denims and are doing well in knits. Our focus will be on men’s wear category only.” For festive/winter 2011, the brand is offering a collection which is a little different from others. “We have a lot of corduroys this time and have made acrylic check jackets,” informs Gupta. Also on the list are denim and corduroy shirts.
Just
I is a 100 per cent fashion brand, 70 per cent of their collections is hardcore fashion and the rest has slight elements of fashion. The brand follows fast fashion and updates stocks every month. It has always succeeded in giving something new to its customers. “We keep supplying a fresh line every 15 days and some on a monthly basis. We introduce around 30 to 40 new styles every month,” Gupta says. With its huge product offerings ranging from T-shirts, shirts, denims and non denims the brand always incorporates the latest inputs while designing. It also offers sweat shirts, flat knits and corduroys.
Retail wise around 98 per cent of its stores are in small towns. “In the future, we will be in 90 per cent Tier II and Tier III cities,” says Gupta. Currently the brand has 25 EBOs and aims to add another 10 by Diwali. Among the stores opening before Diwali is a 1,600 sq. ft. flagship at Neptune Mall, Bhandup, Mumbai. The stores are mainly located in Baroda, Ujjain, Durgapura, Raipur, Elajpur, Ichalkaranji and Sangli. “We have added some new territories to our network such as Gujarat and Jharkhand. We are looking forward to opening 75 stores by the end of 2012.” Just I has also has around 350 MBOs. However, they are not present in large formats. Hence, EBOs and MBOs have 50:50 share in their earnings. “We would like to grow in MBOs by 100 per cent. We are not in large formats since we prefer to concentrate on EBOs, MBOs, and Tier II, III and IV towns. We have grown by 100 per cent this summer. Besides, accessories too will be a focus for us once we achieve the target of opening 100 stores,” sums up Gupta.
