Wills Lifestyle on expansion mode

Chennai, Sep 1: ITC's Wills Lifestyle, which offered a complete lifestyle wardrobe for the premium consumer, has chalked out a three pronged expansion strategy to take advantage of the growing market in the fashion and brand garment segments.

Talking to newspersons here, Marketing and Retail, Vice-President Atul Chand said as part of expansion plans, the company would open more stores in big cities, penetrate into tier II towns and make available "Miss Player" the women's brand in multiple outlets.

Presently, while the market was growing by 15 to 20 per cent, the company was growing by 30 per cent and taking advantage of this, the company would expand its stores in the country from the existing 40 to 100 in the next two years, he said.

"We will open atleast three to five additional stores in cities like Chennai, Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata, besides penetrating into tier II cities", he said but declined to give details about the investment plan.

Wills Lifestyle had the competitive advantage over others as it offered formal, casual and designer wears, he said, adding that the sale of designer garments constituted 15 per cent of the company's total sales, which he said was very significant.

The company, which had tied up with five leading designers, including Manish Malhotra and Ranjit Pratap Singh, would be roping in five more designers to provide the customers, exclusive designer garments, Mr Chand said.

The Company's flagship brand John Players would further be popularised with the opening of 100 more shops by the end of this fiscal, taking the total number to 300. "Miss Player", soft launched two months ago, would be expanded this year, he said.

He said that in the forthcoming Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week to be held in Delhi from September five, Rohit Bhal, India's master of fabric and fantasy, would be the designer for the company.

The fashion week, organised by the Fashion Design Council of India (FDCI) and sponsored by Wills Lifestyle, would be a "ramp to rack" initiative to help designers, buyers and the customers, he said.

The tenth edition of the fashion week would provide a platform for the designers to showcase their latest designs and creativity to the world. More than 70 designers were expected to participate and the buyers would come from all over the world, Mr Chand said.

UNI