While decades-old
women’s wear brands Kilol and Jashn have are betting on franchised
exclusive stores to go national, others such as Mumbai’s Isvarah,
Bangalore-based Soch and Jole Clothing and Neeru’s have tied up with
retail chains.

Isvarah, for
example, has tied up with K raheja Group’s Shoppers’ Stop and
Landmark Group’s Lifestyle to retail its lines. “Volumes are raked
in through multi-brand outlets and we are bound to grow with their slated
expansions,” says company director Rakesh Kukreja. “We have two
standalone stores, but only for branding purposes,” he
adds.

Neeru’s, which was
retailing in Hyderabad for three decades, explored the shop-in-shop model with
Future Group’s Central format and Lifestyle since 2004, and expanded its
stand-alone presence to eight stores after venturing into Mumbai and Bangalore
recently. “We are the largest-selling ethnic wear brand across the Central
formats,” says Harish Kumar, co-owner of the Rs 60-crore ethnic chain that
sells saaris, suits, kurtas and
chudidar.

The Rs 40-crore Soch,
which spends Rs 6 lakh a month on advertising, recently tied up with Central. It
has six stores in Bangalore and is poised to enter Chennai and Mangalore.

Jashn, which has 28 exclusive
stores across the country, is now targeting international expansion.
Hyderabad-headquartered retailer Kalanjali and Chennai-based Nalli Silk’s
value-added offerings Lavanya Nalli and Nalli Next have also tapped into
neigbouring markets over the last year. These women-centric brands are cashing
in on the increasing appeal of traditional dresses to increase their brand
salience nationally. And for good
reason.



A recent study on average trading
density (sales per sq ft per month) across organised retail formats ranks
traditional ethnic fashion almost double that of western fashion brands.
According to the study by retail planning consultancy Asipac Projects, new
generation ethnic fashion brands such as Biba, W and Global Desi have an average
trading density of Rs 1, 600 psfm compared to Rs 900 psfpm for national western
fashion brands and Rs 850 psfpm for international labels.

Leading ethnicwear retailer
Fab India’s director Sunil Chainani reasons that, unlike westernwear for
which display is integral to showcase styles and cuts; ethnic wear is largely
stacked on shelves. “This often tends to move up the rate of sales due to
greater variety,” he says. Traditional ethnicwear chains, operate at price
points between Rs 1, 500 and Rs 4, 000 on an average.

The Indian women’s wear
market is estimated at Rs 43, 500 crore as of 2008, according to Technopak.
Ethnic wear accounts for 67% of the Indian woman’s wardrobe and is growing
8-9%, annually. “There is a huge opportunity for national players to
enter in the market. However, the sector poses various problems such as tastes
and preferences which vary across states and fashion trends that change
fast,” says Baqar Naqvi, associate vice-president, retail & consumer
goods, at Technopak.