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ITC tailors brand to tap apparel mass mart

Reeba Zachariah in Mumbai

After using the Wills brand to promote its premium apparel retailing business, the cigarettes-to-hotels major ITC Ltd is gearing up to launch a new brand for its foray in the apparel mass market.

Towards this direction, it has roped in advertising agency FCB-Ulka to create a brand for its foray into the mid-range men's ready-to-wear segment, company officials said.

Priced between Rs 400-1,000 plus, the new brand is slated to hit the market by the end of this year or by the first quarter of next year.

ITC's new offering is positioned against the Peter England's of the world in the market place.

Peter England, from the Aditya Birla group stable, is the largest selling mid-priced menswear brand in the country.

The tobacco giant is likely to sell the new mid-range through multi-brand outlets and not through Wills Lifestyle stores.

ITC is following a dual branding strategy: Wills Sport is its unisex premium apparel brand while Wills Lifestyle is the retail brand.

ITC created its lifestyle retailing business division with the launch of the Wills Sport apparel brand apparel in 2000. The company recently launched Wills Classic in the formal segment.

Thereafter, having spread the Wills Sport brand nationwide (around 50 stores), ITC's lifestyle retailing business division started exploring the mass market with the idea of launching a mid-priced brand.

The latest move, according to ITC officials, is to rake in volumes and expand the business.

The lifestyle retailing business division is expected to clock a turnover of Rs 45 crore (Rs 450 million) for the financial year ended March 31, 2003 and this is anticipated to cross Rs 80 crore (Rs 800 million) in the next fiscal, ITC officials added.

Meanwhile, ITC is planning to take the Wills Sport brand overseas and is looking at setting up Wills Lifestyle stores in several countries.

The company intends to double the number (100 stores) by July 2003 in India. ITC the diversified company operates in cigarettes, foods, garments, retailing, greeting cards and hotels.

Kolkata Bureau adds: Meanwhile, WelcomHeritage, a division of the ITC Hotels, which operates palaces, havelis, forts and resorts, has drawn up plans to develop circuits all over India in a bid to attract more tourists.

The hotel company today signed up three properties at Dharamshala, Ladakh and Manali which are likely to start operations by the beginning of the next financial year.

It plans to tie up with more properties in the south and Gujarat in the next phase and to expand rapidly in India, Rakesh Mathur, president, WelcomHeritage, said.

"Considering the heritage potential of the states, we are interested in expanding to Gujarat and the southern states including Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu," Mathur said.

It had recently acquired two properties at Pushkar in Rajasthan on a franchisee management and operation basis.

The division has 21 properties spread in Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Uttaranchal and Madhya Pradesh.

While foreigners constitute a major proportion of its customers, the division is now focusing on domestic leisure as well as the business travelers.

It plans to boost the conferencing facilities at its properties to give a thrust to the domestic business segment.

Company officials said that the division is targeting conversion of the heritage properties in an around-the-year destination by converting it into a domestic leisure as well as the business destination.

Some of its properties include Bal Samand, Karni Fort, Lallgarh Palace and Umaid Bhawan in Rajasthan, Nalagarh Fort in Himachal Pradesh, Bandhavgarh and Kanha in Madhya Pradesh and Corbett Ramganga at Uttaranchal.

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