Lee Cooper, rebranding its value business in India

Lee Cooper the popular denim and casuals brand is planning to rechristen its value business in India. Its value brand includes 'Famous Basics by Lee Cooper'. This is now being re-christened as ‘Lee Cooper Originals’ with a launch being planned

for October/November. The brand is retailed through 130 hypermarkets of Big Bazaar and stores of Fashion@BigBazaar. “We have two divisions – lifestyle business and value business. The lifestyle business includes brands Lee Cooper and sub brands RDLC (Red Diamond Lee Cooper), Blue Diamond and Lee Cooper Juniors. These brands are retailed through 90 large format stores. Our EBO presence is small, as we feel property prices are still high and the quality of retail destinations are limited. We plan to get into this channel only next year. Currently, the MBO presence is not there and this is also planned for next year,” says Amit Parikh, Head, Lee Cooper India.

The brand follows a fashion cycle of two seasons – spring/summer (from mid February to mid July) and autumn/winter (from mid August to mid January). For the oncoming autumn/winter the brand has introduced a small collection for men under its sub brand RDLC. This is a premium fashionable collection. It’s been picked up from their European collection. The collection includes: shirts, knits and denims. The new range is already in stores at Pantaloons, Central, Lifestyle and Shoppers Stop.

Their latest women’s collection is again bright and fashionable with strong shades of fuchsia, green, aubergine, reds, blue and orange. “Styles are adapted to Indian customer’s tastes in terms of styling and silhouettes. Jeggings have been introduced at a steal price of Rs 999. While jeans are in corduroy fabric, another highlight of the collection,” avers Parikh. “Our designers and buyers travel to all the major fairs and cities of Europe. We also get to see the European collection of Lee Cooper. At the end of day, we adapt things for the Indian consumer keeping them ahead in terms of fashion trends."

With the intention of increasing the target group falling in the age group of 16-22 years, they extended their brand line and introduced Blue Diamond. “In Lee Cooper we are fashionable and catering to a customer in age group 24-32. Blue Diamond is an extension to bring in the street element in our collections,” adds Parikh. As of now, all three brands are being retailed through 90 large format stores. “Since we are currently selling primarily through LFS we are expanding with them. With most of the metros and Tier I cities covered by LFS they are now expanding rapidly to Tier II cities. We recently entered cities like Allahabad, Mangalore, Vizag and the sales response in these cities has been quite encouraging,” explains Parikh.

For the last 12 years, the brand had established itself very well in the country, especially in north India. Today, Lee Cooper is among the leading denim brands with good presence across department stores. Besides the brand is expecting a retail turnover of Rs150 crores this year and by the next year, their plan is to achieve Rs 200 crores. Also, the company has the licence to sell in South Asian countries including Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal.