Madame to come up with premium studio collection

Ludhiana-based teens and women’s wear brand Madame is now planning to come up with a studio collection. This will be in the premium range. And along with the new launch, Madame is also looking to spreading its retail network making inroads in untapped markets.

New collections for the season

For the forthcoming season, Madame has seen good bookings. As per Akhil Duggar, Director, Madame bookings went off well

without any hiccups. “The season should turn out to be fine following the poor summer showing,” he opines. The new collections planned for the forthcoming season are inspired by prints and tropical flora. Also on the anvil is a studio collection in the premium range. Madame has a wide range of products in its basket from tops, to shorts, dresses, denims, etc and formal wear like blazers, pullovers, sportswear, etc. The prices range from Rs 799 to 8,999.

Launched in the early 1980s, Madame has managed to create a niche in the women’s wear segment. Duggar feels the women’s wear market, especially western wear, is still very niche but its responding well to the array of brands developing within the country. “But the taxation and real estate scenario for premium spaces is somehow a big bug bear,” says Duggar.

He feels global players who have deep pockets do have an edge in this space as they are able to source manpower, capture premium retail spaces and come up with good marketing for their products. He points out that after the imposition of excise duty on branded garments two years ago, pricing for established Indian brands was a big challenge as the price difference between Indian and foreign brands had reduced considerably. With bigger premium spaces being allotted and secured for foreign brands, Indian brands had to settle for second best options.

Currently, Madame is available in 120 EBOs and 700 MBOs and LFS. It’s now focusing on expansion in central and western India. Duggar believes being in the niche segment, their pricing is not affected by competition. And brand loyalty has increased among today’s brand conscious customers. And even though global and domestic brands are now expanding rapidly in Tier I and II cities, he feels small towns, are not yet ready for big global brands. “The early signs have been good but unlike local players, we have also seen many foreign labels exiting within two to three years.”

He points out that Madame is one of the few brands to have done well online also. In fact, the brand’s online as well as brick and mortar stores are doing equally well with new store launches in the pipeline in Jammu’s Wave Mall, Pavilion Mall, Ludhiana, Faridabad, NIT Market and Gorakhpur.