GAS OPENS FLAGSHIP IN MUMBAI

Gas has recently opened a new flagship store in Mumbai, inside High Street Phoenix, one of the most significant shopping malls of the city and a location that gathers some of the best international fashion brands along with a wide selection of entertainment offers. The new concept store reinterprets some of the brand’s most iconic interior decor elements in a very innovative way.. 
  
Gas strongly believes in the importance to expand in India, a market whose economy is evolving fast and whose population is among the youngest globally. The new Mumbai flagship store adds up to the already existing 46 stores spread among the country’s major cities. Out of this, there are shop-in-shops based inside chain stores and department stores such as Shoppers Stop, Kapsons and Iconix, with 11 additional monobrand stores in Mumbai, Delhi, Ludhiana, Hyderabad, Chandigarth, Chennai, Thane, in addition to Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Pune and Delhi again, which opened throughout 2014. 
  
The presence of Gas in India is constantly expanding as the result of the master franchise agreement with the Indian group Reliance Brands Ltd, a solid and established company. Gas has found a partner with whom it can share common vision, strategies and targets for the future, while respecting values and identity. 
  
“For the next five years our common aim is to make Gas become a major player in the premium lifestyle market niche with a thorough distribution network and a strong reputation for our target – open-minded and cosmopolitan young professionals who are conscious about the latest trends and look for the best from international fashion for both their working occasions and leisure time,” commented Claudio Grotto, founder and president of Gas, while inaugurating the Mumbai store. 

Pepe Jeans To Come Up With Kids Wear In 2015

One of the most accepted denim wear brand, Pepe Jeans has plans to launch its kids wear range next year in India. The chic brand from London has already gained laurels in Indian franchise industry.  The brand has around 200 Exclusive Brand Outlets (EBOs) and all are franchisee run. It also has 700 Point of Sales (POS) in Multi Brand Outlets (MBO) and has presence in 125 cities in India.

Kavindra Mishra, Chief Executive Officer, Pepe Jeans says: “The DNA of our brand is Denim. 50 per cent of our business is via denim and rest 50 per cent is non-denim. Denim franchising is without doubts a wise decision that one can make. Denim never goes out of trend and is well accepted across age groups.”

Regarding the franchisees Mishra adds: “My brand’s franchisees are just like our partner. After handling so many brands and having an experience of 16 years in the industry, I can confidently say that apparel brands don’t work on RoI. It is all about finding good partners. For Pepe, we don’t look for investors instead we seek excellent partners with local expertise and one who understands retail, fashion and who can add value to the business.”

Celio continues India focus, targets opening 100 stores by ’16

Celio, the French fashion retailer is all set to strengthen its connection with Indian customers. The brand, is eyeing a bigger pie of India’s organized menswear retail market. Celio brings an essentially urban European fashion trend through its collection of shirts, jackets, waistcoats, trousers, suits, jackets and accessories.

In India, Celio offers a wide range of smart casual, business wear, sportswear, clubwear and denims. Celio had stepped into the country in 2008, the brand opened its first store in R City, Mumbai in 2009. Today the brand runs 40 exclusive brand stores which are fully company owned and operated and 128 shop-in-shops. The brand has also penetrated through large format stores like Pantaloons, Central and Lifestyle. Celio is looking at rolling out 100 stores by 2016.

Riding the booming e-commerce wave, the brand has already registered 7 percent of its total revenue in the domestic market through online sales. It has tied up with leading ecommerce portals like Myntra, Jabong, Flipkart and Amazon. “The urban Indian youth is aspiring for fast, effortless fashion. In India the younger generation is as fashion seeking as their global counterparts. They have exposure of international trends through the net, TV and mobile. We want people to come up to us for global fashion,” says Rajiv Nair, CEO, Celio, Future Fashion.

Driven by a strong conviction in India market, the brand is eyeing deeper penetration through retail expansion and a strategic communication plan targeted at young consumers. “We are essentially a retail oriented company which means our philosophy or strategy is store, product and customer service centric. We are exploring various routes to increase our penetration and strongly believe internet is the way,” he says.

“We have a legacy of two decades and in India we are just a starter, we are still understanding the market. We see ourselves as a retailer first, backed by a fantastic manufacturing set up. We manufacture four crore garments in Asia per annum and 10 lakh of these per annum are for India. We are taking the slow route. We have set the route and standards. Now, our goal is to get profits at the corporate level,” adds Nair.

Although the brand is not in a hurry to open franchisee stores it does plan to slowly tap that route. “Even though we are looking at franchisee stores for expansion, it won’t be bigger than our company stores. We understand that we have to take the franchisee route to get into smaller territories,” sums up Nair.