Wills Lifestyle to tap smaller towns

KOLKATA, March 9: Global recession and slowdown might have compelled a number of companies to put their expansion plans on hold, but Wills Lifestyle, a premium fashion brand of the country, plans to go ahead with its retail growth schedule.
"We will continue with our expansion plans", Mr Atul Chand, divisional chief executive of ITC's Lifestyle retailing business division, said here today.
Speaking to The Statesman, Mr Chand said that as part of the plans, Wills Lifestyle will expand its presence to tier II and III cities. "We will almost double the number of Wills Lifestyle store from existing 55 to 100 in the next two years and most of them will come up in smaller towns", he said.
"We have good coverage in key metros and so our target is to tap the smaller towns where the demand for branded products is on the rise", Mr Chand said.
However, due to a slowdown in the pace of mall development, specially in smaller towns, the company plans to make franchise arrangement for rolling out Wills Lifestyle stores in those towns instead of opening company-owned retail stores.
He, however, did not put any figure as regards investment earmarked by the company to pursue its expansion plans.
Mr Chand said that Wills Lifestyle had renewed its contract with Fashion Design Council of India and it would continue as title sponsor of the company's biggest B2B fashion event ~ India Fashion Week ~ for the fourth successive year and present the seventh edition of WIEF scheduled to held from 18 to 22 March.
India Fashion Week is a pan-India event which takes place twice in a year, where designers across the country come to showcase their products. Buyers also come from different places.
"Partnering such a prestigious event also have a telling impact on the brand equity of the company which consequently helps garnering more business", Mr Chand observed.
Wills Lifestyle has also tied up with a number of designers to make their collections available in Wills retail stores under the segment 'designers' wear'.
"This ramp-to-rack initiative is a win-win situation for both the designers as well as us as they can access the entire retail infrastructure through us which increases the availability of theses products beyond metros.
On the other hand, preference for designers' wear is picking up very fast and it contributes around 15 per cent of our total sales", Mr Chand said.

Source: http://www.thestatesman.net/