This summer, many brands have been bogged down by the 10 per cent excise duty. Business for them has been below expectations and now they are looking forward to winters to rev up. Denim and casual wear brand, Status Quo, is one of them.
“Excise and cotton price rise has been the biggest bug bear for manufacturer this season. Because of this retailer got the opportunity to cancel orders. There were times when for 15-20 days business was still. We did grow compared to last summer by about 8-10 per cent but it’s not as per our target of 35 per cent,” says Bobby Arora, Director, Crave Clothing makers of Status Quo. However, it still has big plans for the forthcoming winter/festive season. Last year it came out with a winter collection on a small scale and this year it plans scale it up with jackets and sweat shirts. “Festive/winter is a good season and 60 per cent of yearly business comes during this season. We are working closely with the demand for this season,” Arora.
The brand will be launching a street wear collection inspired by bikes and sports. “We have a lot of biker jackets in our collection. In the winter, we focus on purely youth and work on fashion. Our jackets are known as winter jackets but they are fashionable and that is why we are able to sell a good number even in the western region. We work on a story even with sweat shirts. Our collection is mostly sporty,” says Arora. On an expansion mode Status Quo has a licensee agreement with UK-based brand Mr Men and Little Miss. “Mr Men and Little Miss gels with our product’s DNA and understanding. So it is a good opportunity for us to scale up business by joining hands and sell them under our retail module. In fact, we are aggressively looking for tie-ups and may sign up and introduce three or four more brands by next summer,” Arora informs.
On the retail front, the brand is present in all metros and expanding its presence in Tier II and Tier III cities. Since it caters to mid-level consumers, it focuses on smaller towns. Arora explains, “We are able to grow in smaller towns since we get good deals on rentals. So for every store we open in a metro we look at opening four to five stores in smaller towns.” In fact, when Status Quo’s R&D team sets out to develop or build a style, it looks to small towns for inspiration.
By Diwali, the brand aims to open eight more EBOs which will add to its current 22 stores. These will come up in Ahmedabad, Rajkot, Surat, Panipat, Karnal, Mumbai and Pune. It’s also with almost all large formats like Shoppers Stop, Central, Lifestyle, Reliance Trends, Westside etc. Status Quo has a presence in almost 600 MBOs.
Arora says, “We realize that there is still a lot of untapped potential in MBOs. We are looking to grow in MBOs by 40 per cent. Also we are growing with large formats and as and when they expand, we move along. In Central and Reliance we have a shop-in-shops where we get close to 150-200 sq. ft. and in Westside and Lifestyle we have displays.” With retail turnover of Rs 90 crores in March 2011 the brand is looking for a turnover of Rs 125 crores by March 2012.
