Century may enter women's wear

Century Textiles and Industries, the B K Birla group flagship, plans to enter the women's ready-to-wear segment in eight months. The company is also looking to leverage its traditional image by introducing an ethnic wear brand.

"As part of our sub-branding strategy, we will get into new segments using separate brand names, though the umbrella brand will continue to be Century," said Subrata Siddhanta, general manager (apparel and retail).

The company is present in the men's ready-to-wear segment under the Cotton's By Century brand name. Century also plans to supply apparel to airlines and banks and hopes to get around 20 per cent of its business from such institutional sales by the year-end.

The company will increase the number of its exclusive outlets from 35 to 57 by the year-end, with spends of Rs 75-85 lakh (Rs 7.5-8.5 million) on each new store.

It is also looking at selling its apparel through multi-brand outlets by November and is in talks with top four MBOs.

Although MBOs deliver less margins than its own stores, Century is taking the MBO route as part of a long-term brand-building exercise.

"We have always been low on branding. Though we have increased ad spends this year from 10 per cent of our revenue to 20 per cent, MBOs will act as our largest billboard in terms of the visibility they can give us," Siddhanta said.

Century's strategy is at odds with players such as Provogue, which are shifting focus to exclusive outlets owing to lesser margins from MBOs.

Century wants to take its turnover from Rs 10.5 crore (Rs 105 million) to Rs 25 crore (Rs 250 million) by this fiscal-end.

The apparel market in India is at Rs 78000 crore (Rs 780 billion), growing at 13 per cent annually. Of this, the branded ready-to-wear market comprising around Rs 50000 crore (Rs 500 billion) is growing at 25 per cent annually.