Mustard’s goal: To dress up every Indian woman

Mustard the popular premium women’s brand is planning to make its retail presence felt pan India by adding more EBOs. They want to scale up the number of EBOs from 8 at present to 20 in the next two years. The brand which has carved

a niche for itself with its range of clothes also plans to introduce ‘Indo by Mustard’, a fusion wear for mix and match. “We have carved a niche for ourselves in premium women’s wear and in the process have become a true lifestyle brand. It involves creating a new business model and all that it entails -- environmental scan and opportunity sizing, consumer understanding that flows out of research, product creation, brand positioning and consumer delight at the end of the journey,” explains Saurabh Gupta, Director, Mustard Clothing.

Gupta feels the challenge mostly lies in understanding the needs of women and positioning the brand in a unique manner. The Indian women’s apparel market has undergone a transformational over the past few years. The growing number of working women, changing fashion trends, rising levels of information and media exposure have given the industry a new dimension. “We aspire to see every second Indian woman wearing Mustard outfits,” he avers. Why not, after all Mustard is the only brand in the country to offer nine sizes making it their biggest USP.

Mustard offers premium clothing for women and their products range includes apparel from shirts to dresses, tunics to spaghettis, trousers, skirts, jeans, Bermudas, capris, knits, sweaters, jackets, suits and blazers. The price varies between Rs 399 to Rs 3,500. But what really sets them apart is that they offer clothes for plus sized women.

Sold entirely through EBOs the brand is still exploring the right model for MBOs. That’s not all the brand has also been doing some amount of exports to the US. But even though they would like to make Mustard an internationally acclaimed brand and export it to as many countries as possible, at the moment their focus is the Indian market.

The brand jumped into the e-commerce bandwagon as well and launched its website. “Everything that is available at the stores is available on the website. We offer free shipping for purchases of Rs 2,000 or more, and a 10 per cent discount on purchases of Rs 5,000 or above,” Gupta says.

As for the future, they plan to come up with an IPO in the next four to five years. Also on the cards is expansion to Tier II cities and exports to the Middle East and a few south Asian countries. With a turnover of Rs 10 crores at the moment, Mustard expects to reach Rs 20 crores by March 2011. “We will aim for a 100 per cent CAGR for the next five years,” sums up Gupta.