O-Live: Aims at fast growth, adds accessories

O-Live the men’s wear brand targeting youth is getting huge acceptance from its consumers. In a year the brand launches 200 designs in shirts, 50 denim designs and 20 designs in T-shirts. “We have been into textile exports for 25 to 30 years,

and visit fashion hubs like Paris, Milan to gather ideas. We know the sourcing of the fabric well, hence can compete with anyone even in styling,” avers Anil Bhardwaj, Director, Maitree Exports. The brand offers denims, shirts, T-shirts, formal trousers in cotton and polyester viscose for men, though everything is outsourced.

For this winter season the brand is starting with jackets and also has plans to launch accessories. The brand’s market is in Gujarat where winters aren’t heavy. So the jackets are basically hoodies and fleece fabric is used. Jackets are priced at Rs 895 maximum. “You can call it a pre-winter thing. We are also planning to start with sweaters in areas like MP and Gujarat from autumn/winter 2011. We already export sweaters to Africa for which we source from Ludhiana,” says Bhardwaj.
   
 “We will start with accessories like belts, wallets, etc. We have already developed leather belts with good buckles in 20 to 25 styles, priced at Rs 400, which are already selling well through our stores in Surat. Wallets will be launched in a couple of months. In the next three months we aim to come out with perfumes to be sourced from China. Maybe we will offer that gratis with the denims. And later we will start shoes too,” informs Bhardwaj. The brand follows fast fashion and comes out with a new collection every 15 days. “We cater to the various needs of our consumers as even in summer people in Gujarat and Andhra wear long sleeve shirts, while in Punjab people wear long sleeve shirts only in winter,” adds Bhardwaj.

The brand opened its first two stores in Surat in Gujarat and following a great demand added a store at Rajkot too. Their aim is to cover the whole of Gujarat in the near future. So far the brand has about 10 stores in India and three or four more are in the pipeline. All these stores are through the franchise route. Andhra too has shown great sales for O-Live. By March 2011 the brand aims to take the number of stores to 15 and next year plans to open 20 more. There are queries from Andhra, Bhopal, Punjab, MP and Pune and other parts of Maharashtra, but the brand plans to move gradually. O-Live is present in about 1000 MBOs in Gujarat, Punjab, Haryana, UP, Andhra and in some parts of MP. It plans to focus on Bihar, UP, MP through MBOs. The brand also has shop-in-shops with Treasure Showcase at Indore and Lucknow. “We have also registered our brand in east Africa, and plan to open three EBOs there. With an existing turnover of Rs 10 crores, we plan to double that by March 2012,” concludes Bhardwaj.