Satya Paul eyeing smaller cities for growth

Satya Paul, the premier designer brand celebrated its 25th anniversary at the Lakme Fashion Week Spring/Summer Resort 2010 this week. Paying a tribute to women across the globe for making the brand a success, their new collection was a perfect combination of design

and comfort. “One season we do a ‘Cosmic Dancing’ which is completely Indian in flavor and the next season we shift to a modern ‘Maya’, which is very graphic, colorful and bold. Thus, the shift in our spectrum is very dramatic. We have broken our collection into three parts, Satya, Satya Paul and Signature. Signature is our luxury line,” says Puneet Nanda, MD, Genesis Colors. He says, the Signature line is limited edition, no compromise line. Prices start from Rs 15,000 onwards. In fact, all the three brands have the same product categories but the pricing is different for each.

The brand currently has around 35 boutiques of about 1,000 sq. ft. each pan India. “We are very well spread out in India. It’s just a question of finding pockets where service is required. For example, in Mumbai alone there is an east and west aspect and a south and north aspect to be looked into. Right now we have four stores in Mumbai. We are also present in Tier II and Tier III cities. We are already there in Lucknow and are looking at Patna, Vijayawada, Kochi and other smaller towns”, explains Nanda. For the next financial year Satya Paul is looking at a 25 per cent growth, which would mean opening of another seven to ten boutiques.

Nanda says that even though India is their main focus, catering to the domestic market encompasses numerous challenges as it is not yet well developed. “There is a constant struggle with the weavers, the shipping company, the customer who doesn’t understand the effort and the value attached with each product and so on,” he says. Moreover, the market is so diverse it’s actually like 20 countries in one. “We have to cater to the tastes of the south, north, east, west differently and that’s a big challenge,” says Nanda.

Besides India, Satya Paul also has distribution agreements in the US and UK, which are its primary market. They do not have any stores but have a dealer network in these countries.