India : Madura Garments bullish on Trouser Town''s prospects

Branded apparel major Madura Garments will focus its retail initiatives on growing its exclusive outlets (Trouser Town/ Planet Fashion) as well as beefing up its presence in departmental stores such as Shoppers’ Stop, Life Style and Globus.

However, despite selling its merchandise through over 500 multi-brand outlets(MBOs), the company says this point of sale is expected to be flat or even decline.

Mr Vishak Kumar, national retail manager at Madura Garments told ET that consumers today were demanding more personalised attention when they purchased apparel.

They were today unwilling to buy clothes from MBOs,  with modern well-staffed malls and exclusive outlets offering more personalised service. “MBOs offering a little bit of every brand are no longer viable. They have to offer some sort of differentiator to customers,” Mr Kumar said.

Madura is focusing on Planet Fashion stores that mainly sell suits priced between Rs 3995 and Rs 15,000. Currently, Madura Garments runs around 35 Planet Fashion outlets on a franchisee model and plans to increase it to 45 in two months and have 130 stores nation-wide in three years. Mr Kumar claimed that around 300 suits were sold per month at these outlets on the average every month.