Proline: Eyes retail expansion with new brand identity

Enjoying a 10 per cent share of the sports lifestyle segment, Proline wants to be both performance as well as a lifestyle brand apart from reintroducing the retail identity of the brand. Opines Sandeep Mukim, Director Marketing, Proline India,

“Proline will no longer be only a sports segment player. We want to play both the performance and the lifestyle side of the market. What’s unique to the brand is the value offering it does. We are 30 to 40 per cent cheaper than other national or international brand at the similar level of offering.” Adding further, he says, “We are redoing the retail identity for the brand now. This will be launched in September. The product architecture will suit the segment. We will start engagement activity with the target customer. We have a range of fitness equipment. Over a period, by 2015, we will introduce footwear as a complementing category.”

As of now, Proline is available in 20 EBOs. “We will open 10 EBOs this year apart from launching our online store. Our philosophy is not to discount. We mainly operate through full-priced marketplaces. We are among the top 10 apparel brands retailed online. We are in 170 doors of large format stores like Lifestyle, Shoppers Stop, Reliance Trends, and Central. We have a pan India distribution with 20 distributors and 700 sales points,” elaborates Mukim. The company also sells its range in the Middle East and plans to expand to Sri Lanka by October this year.

Proline was launched in 1983 with the idea of introducing a good line of sports clothing. From the very beginning, the hallmark of the brand has been its sports association and innovative product range. As Mukim says, “We have had technical assistance provided by companies like DuPont. We have always had retail stores for the brand. Earlier the firm was called ProShop and it was in Mumbai, Bangalore and Delhi and with some good multi-brand outlets of those times like Snow White.”

The brand caters to people who work out at gyms, running, cycling. It targets individual levels of fitness than playing to win. On the lifestyle side, it targets value customers with products that have general silhouettes and core colors. “At the top of the lifestyle segment we have also introduced Proline Original. This derives from the heritage of the brand and it’s a premium offering from the brand consisting of 260 mercerised products. This is for older customers who have an emotional connect with the brand from its earlier days,” exclaims Mukim.

Proline’s product portfolio consists of T-shirts, track pants and shorts. Elaborating on the range, Mukim says, “In lifestyle we also have a varsity line. This targets customers who are in varsity and those who have a sense of nostalgia. This is called Proline Varsity.”