V-Melo to launch Mansha, a women’s inner wear brand

V-Melo Apparels, makers of men’s innerwear brand Malo, is now planning to foray into women’s innerwear with the brand ‘Mansha’. “It’s already under process and we will start in the next one year,” says Paresh Rathod, Director. In the next one year V-Melo’s plans include launching innerwear

for women and kids and aggressive retail expansion. “Women’s innerwear is a big and competitive market with a lot of brands. We plan both lounge wear and lingerie in Mansha. In kids wear we plan vests, briefs and night wear,” he informs.

V-Melo is best known for Malo, its men’s innerwear brand in the mid-premium segment. Malo has 17 varieties of vests, which are quite different from what other brands offer. They can be used as gym wear, casual wear and nightwear. V-Melo also has a men’s loungewear brand called Maalls in the premium segment. “By the end of March, we are launching another six products under Maalls covering briefs, vests and more styles in the lounge wear categories,” says Rathod.

V-Melo’s products are being retailed through 11,000 outlets across India and it has chalked out major retail expansion for the next two years. This year, the company is planning to launch its first exclusive brand outlet. “We are planning an EBO through the franchise route. Our target is to open the EBO in Jaipur. Initially, we are looking at 300 to 500 sq. ft. space. The Jaipur EBO will start in six months. In the first year we plan 10 stores and we will proceed gradually after that,” he says. After Rajasthan they plan to open EBOs in UP, Maharashtra, Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir, Orissa or West Bengal, and Guwahati.

Simultaneously, V-Melo is also planning to enter large format chains and multibrand stores like Lifestyle, Pantaloons, and Big Bazaar in the next six months. As of now, they are present in all three MBOs of Pakeezah in Indore. “By end of March ’10 we will increase our retail capacity to about 15,000 stores. That’s an additional 4,000 outlets,” says Rathod.

With such aggressive expansion plans the brand is aiming to be among the top five in India in the next five years. V-Melo is also looking at 150 per cent growth by 2011-12. “By March 2012, we will increase stores by 40 to 50 per cent and have around 25,000 retail counters. We are already present in many Tier-II cities and are targeting many more” he says.