Remanika: Betting big on expansion to smaller cities

Remanika, the women’s wear brand is gung ho about its growth plans. With a target of achieving Rs 100 crores in the next 2-3 years it plans to open more EBOs and take the brand to smaller towns where demand for branded wear has gone up.

Jalaj Kakkar, CEO of Remanika Apparels says at present they operate through 60 outlets including 15 EBO. The brand is also available in all LFS such as Pantaloons, Shoppers Stop, Lifestyle, Central and Westside, apart from MBOs such as Kapsons and Rituwear. “We will be taking our collection to a Guwahati MBO called Soham to increase our pan-India base. The next step is to increase count of exclusive Remanika stores, in the next two years we will have 25 Remanika stores.”

The brand offers all categories of women’s wear from tops to shirts, tunics, dresses, denim, jackets, jumpsuits, jeggings along with evening party wear priced between Rs 700 to Rs 3,000. “Women’s wear is our forte, and we want to continuously excel in this category by offering everything a woman looks for in stores like Remanika,” Kakkar says. For autumn/winter the brand has followed a trend of checks in their tops and pants collection. Talking about the fashion element, Kakkar says, big sleeves are in fashion, so they have flared sleeves, ruffles on sleeves adorned with lace. To add options to the denim line, they have chambray tunics, some ultra feminine tops with layers of cascades, frills and skirts. Apart from the regular collection, they have added a range of sweaters.

Worldwide among all the denim produced 65 per cent is for women’s wear but in India, 85 per cent of the total denim produced is for men’s wear but the demand for women’s denim is gradually catching up. As the research and development in India is concentrated on men’s wear, the technology put into the men’s category is also higher which includes fabric quality, stitching techniques and most of all washes.

Remanika has been contributing towards the demand for women’s denim. It’s experimenting with different washes like washed down denims, dark washes and fabrics like back stretch fabric, fabrics which are coated and jeggings-. Hence as the options are being broadened the number of consumers is also increasing.

Talking about current trends in women’s denim, Kakkar says, “Classic rubber stamped workwear branding is in again and so is denim fabric coated with a shiny look. Lightweight denims and front pleating are in, vintage fits, such as the ‘mom’ jeans, continue to be popular, dungarees and denim shorts are shaping up to be a key festival staple.”

He says royal blue reaching a saturation point for this season has given way to the salt and pepper look with twisted threads including indigo and ecru, grey, brown and white giving classic old look to the denim. The women’s denim market in India is one-fourth the size of the men’s market. However, in the last few years, young Indian women have adapted to western lifestyles at a faster pace with an average growth rate of 25-30 per cent per annum, so women’s labels like Remanika have a bright future ahead.