NEW DELHI, Dec 21: Homegrown leather bags and accessories maker Hidesign plans to open standalone stores for its shoes vertical by 2016 to tap the footwear segment.
The company, which is entering into the footwear category with limited products in February 2015, will initially sell in 30 select existing stores in cities such as Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore. It expects the footwear segment to be as big a category as bags in 5 years.
“Shoes will be big for us. We are starting on an experimental basis but eventually it will move up to separate shops. By end of first year, we will have full product range. By second year, we will look at opening individual Hidesign Shoe stores,” Hidesign President Dilip Kapur told PTI.
Hidesign reported Rs 150 crore turnover in the previous fiscal.
On expectations from footwear vertical, he said: “We think shoes will be as big as bags but it will take 5-6 years.”
The company is outsourcing manufacturing of shoes but it will supply leather and control designs. Hidesign shoes would be priced between Rs 4,000-6,000 for men and Rs 3,000-4,000 for women.
Hidesign is also looking at launching separate collections of its hi-end bags for different sales channels.
“Channels are getting segmented. We will launch a separate collection for multi-brand outlets (MBOs). This collection will be more mass (pricing). Exclusive Hidesign stores will sell luxury collection and the price will be double from that of MBOs,” Kapur said.
At present, there are 76 Hidesign stores in the country The company is planning to open another 12-14 stores next year, Kapur said.
All our stores are company operated but we could look at franchising model next year. We can do it on a trial basis with 3-4 stores. We are careful as we do not want franchising model to hurt our brand image.”
The brand also sells its products through e-commerce channels including Amazon and Jabong and it accounts for 20 per cent of its turnover. (PTI)
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