Having entered the women’s segment, Mufti, the casual wear brand for men, is now bullish about its new line. It now intends to introduce the women’s line in many more stores the coming season. As Kamal Khushlani,
Director, Credo Brands Marketing, makers of Mufti says, “We have made a major presentation of our women’s line through 27 stores in Westside along with select exclusive brand outlets. The response has been great.” The brand is focused on young, edgy fashion in the casual space. It has always been known to provide products with a distinct Mufti edge. “Every season has fresh styles depending on fashion trends. Unless the product is edgy, stylish and in keeping with fashion trends it does not become part of our collection.”
Brand Mufti was launched in 1998 with the ambitious aim of gaining a leadership position in men’s fashion. The word Mufti was derived from colonial India’s armed forces indicating casual dressing as opposed to wearing a uniform. It offers men’s casual wear including denims, shirts, T-shirts, sweatshirts and jackets. “Mufti aims to attract customers whose tastes have moved beyond what’s available off-the-rack, and who are self-assured to make a fashion statement reflecting their own distinct persona,” Khushlani avers. Innovation is the brand’s core strength. The brand philosophy is: fashion is something so right for the time that it is never old; it dies young and is reincarnated in another young manifestation. The brand is always present at college fests and other youth events. In fact, they sponsored the Times Music SQS Supastars. (Times Music ran a nationwide talent hunt in order to find the best band in the pop music genre. The SQS Supastars were the winners.)
The brand is present pan-India and has 160 EBOs, 800 MBOs and is also retailed through Westside, Shoppers Stop, Globus, Central and Gitanjali Lifestyle’s Maya stores. Khushlani explains, “We haven’t spread in the south and east India markets to our full potential and this remains the focus area for expansion. As for new products, we believe that the coming year (which will be characterized by huge price rises) is a poor time for experimentation. We will revisit product line extension and expansion sometime in 2012.”
Facing active competition from regional players and brands present across India Khushlani believes that the regional market is a low entry barrier space and there is constant inflow of new and small players. Success will come to only a few. Running pan-India operations involves special costs and problems and although many brands are successful at the regional level it is difficult to succeed as a national brand. “The outlook for 2011 is little cloudy. The turnover till March 2011 was Rs 180 crores on WSP (wholesale prices). We intend to double sales every two years,” sums up Khushlani.
