We are keen to enhance our international presence: Lalit Raghuvanshi

How do you see contemporary ethnic wear market is growing in India? What would be the estimated share of TCNS clothing (for the brand W and Aurelia) in overall market?

India’s contemporary ethnic wear market is going through a dynamic phase marked by the transition from unbranded to branded apparel, unorganised to organised and ready to stitch to ready made. The category is not just limited to being “ethnic” or offering products that suit a particular occasion but it has repositioned itself to become the preferred option for modern Indian women to look beautiful every single day – whatever be the ocassion. TCNS as the leader in this category, is driving this change through clutter breaking marketing & innovative products that combine the best of International fashion trends and make truly fashionable Indianwear products.

 Pls highlight the current distribution (number of cities and outlets) of W and Aurelia. How the company is planning to increase the distribution? Is the company mulling to launch any new brand under TCNS umbrella?

TCNS currently has three brands under its umbrella-W, Aurelia and Wishful. With these brands, the company already has a Pan India presence with over 390 stores across the country. W is well on its way to become the first Womenswear brand in India to have 250 exclusive stores.  Aurelia too has received tremendous consumer traction and has raced to 150 Exclusive stores in a very short span of time. Having established a successful retail module for both W & Aurelia, our focus would now be to establish Wishful as an independent brand through stand-alone stores. We see a lot of scope in this segment and we believe Wishful is well positioned to take off from here.

Apart from India, we have presence in International markets like Mauritius, Nepal, Srilanka and Middle East. Going forward, that’s another area that we would like to focus on and add to our international presence.

How many of your stores are franchise stores? What kind of franchisees do you look for?

 We have a strong set of partners who have contributed signicficantly in our growth journey.  The partnership has always been very strong and we thrive on the enterprenurial abilities of our trade partners. About 60 % of our stores are company stores and the balance are managed by franchisees. In terms of new partners, we like to work with “Retailers” and not “Investors”.

Kindly shed light on your current category split in terms of products currently existing at your stores, and plans for category expansion?  

We are planning to make our Indo-Western brand W, a lifestyle brand by extending it to few additional product categories. The introduction of Jewellery and Bags has helped in increasing our average bill values and we are in the process of introducing more categories that are complimentary to our existing product offerings.

What is the price range for products at your stores? Which price band is the most popular with customers? Also, what kind of items sell the most at your stores?

A. Price range for all our brands is:

W:  Topwear From Rs 1299 to Rs 2999

Wishful: Topwear From Rs 2499 to Rs 5999

Aurelia: Topwear from Rs 699 to Rs 1499; SKD – 1799-3499

What is the average size of your stores? Shed light on various formats, how do they differ from each other in terms of size, products offered, customer profile, etc

The average size of W store is 1000 sqft. The extension of product categories and addition to our existing product offering demands a slightly bigger format and hence, we are now looking at stores which are more than 1200 sqft. Aurelia, on the other hand is a tigher format and the average store size is about 800 sqft.

Shed light your strategy on e-commerce business? What percentage of your revenues comes from this channel, and what revenue targets do you have from ecommerce over the next few years? What are your futures plans pertaining to online business?

The consumer of today wants, and rightly so, the choice to be served as per her comfort, convenience and mood. Any brand, in order to connect with all potential consumers, needs to be available through all the channels, whether online or offline.

We look at E commerce as another sales channel.  Since it’s probably the most visible channel, there are some inherent advantages and disvantages associated with it. We believe that Ecommerce as a channel has tremendous sales & brand building potential provided it’s handled in the right manner.

Currently, we are present online through our own portal for brands W and Aurelia as well as all leading partner sites. The contribution of Ecommernce currently is at 11 %.

At last, mention your growth plans?

 TCNS in FY’17 became the first Womenswear Company in India to cross the Rs. 1000 Crore consumer sales mark – a benchmark that we all are extremely proud of.  For a country as vast as India and with the rapid transition of consumer behavior from unbranded to branded segment, we believethat this is just the beginning and we see tremendous growth potential for each of our brands W, Aurelia & Wishful.