Remanika’s Target: 500 outlets in 65 cities in five years

One of the fastest growing women’s western wear brand Remanika, has now become among the top three women’s wear brand in the country. Talking about the brand positioning, Jalaj Kakkar, CEO of Remanika Apparels, who joined his wife to manage

the business seven years back, says, “The name Remanika was inspired from a Sanskrit word ‘Ramanika’, which literally means beautiful, charming and pleasing. We just changed the first ‘a’ to ‘e’ converting it into ‘Remanika’. Our target audience is the independent women who have perfected the art of balancing between their homes and career. Our audience is between 18 to 35 years and varies from working women, homemakers, models, filmstars, college girls and the like. We have very loyal customers who have helped our brand grow more than 300 times in the last four years. Remanika has nearly 160 points of sale in 36 cities.

The brand started in 1996 at Mumbai by Seema Kakkar opened its first outlet at Kemps Corner, Mumbai. In fact, Remanika was incepted around the time when there was a dearth of good party wear and fashion clothing. More than affordability, it was the styling and designs which set the collection apart.

The brand works on a simple philosophy, which has set it apart from other labels. “We realized that more than the price points, offering styles and collections which are unique yet in sync with fashion trends would set us apart. It could be the fit, cut, embroidery, styling, fabrics. And that is why we come up with a new collection almost every month,” explains Kakkar.

Moving forward, the company is looking at getting PE funding to ensure constant growth. “The plan for Remanika is to have at least 500 outlets in 65 cities of India in the next five years. The brand’s vision for 2020 is to be a one stop shop for women and add Remanika spa, inner wear, leather bags, shoes to the existing portfolio. Another plan includes launch of Seema Kakkar designer wear line,” Kakkar informs.

At present, the collection is available in 160 outlets of which 15 are EBOs, and others are MBOs and LFS, including Pantaloons, Shoppers Stop, Lifestyle, Central, Westside, Kapsons , and Ritu Wears. “We will be opening five more stores by year end. We will also have online presence, apart from operating with other websites such as Fashion and You, Snap Deal, 99 labels and Myntra.com. The target is to be operational through 40 stores including Neptune Mall-Bhandup, Elante Mall-Chandigarh, Phoenix Marketcity-Chennai and City Center-Ludhiana by 2013,” Kakkar sums up.