We'll have 50 stores by end of 2016: Vivek Prabhakar
We'll have 50 stores by end of 2016: Vivek Prabhakar

Ambitiously planning to open around 25 stores by the end of current fiscal and 50 stores by the end of 2016, Chumbak, the apparel, home and accessories brand is on a larger expansion spree. Revealing the same, Vivek Prabhakar, Co-founder and CEO of the brand spoke to Indianretailer.com.

What inspired you to launch a store in Mumbai?
We always wanted to launch a store in Mumbai. Our first store had to be in an iconic location so we though nothing is as iconic as Kala Ghoda in Mumbai. Beyond this, we will continue opening stores in Mumbai. Currently, we have about 11 stores in Mumbai, Delhi, Gurgaon, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Jaipur and Kochin.  
The average area of each store is 1200 sqft to 1500 sqft but our flagship store in Bengaluru is of 2000 sqft. We are investing around Rs 60 lakh to Rs 80 lakh on each store. All of these stores will be company owned.

What are your future plans of expansion?
We will be opening one store in Chandigarh, two in Delhi-NCR and one in Bengaluru by December of 2015. Along with this, we are planning to launch additional three to four stores in Mumbai in the next six months. Next year, though, we are also exploring the opportunity of launching a store in the US as well.
It’s a location-driven expansion. As soon as we get a good location, we will go for it. There is no strategy of only expanding in metros; these stores will be a mix of being in high streets and malls. It could be in a 50:50 ratio.
We are adding one store in two to three weeks’ time. By the end of this fiscal, we would have around 25-30 stores and by the end of 2016, we will have about 50 stores. We can manage the pace of two stores a month.
We are closing our kiosk counters and replacing those with LFOs. So, let’s say if in a mall we have a kiosk, we will shut that and open a large format store. That’s the priority!
Largely, our detailed communication will be driven through offline LFOs along with online and social media.

What will be the ROI per store?
Our stores are brand new so it’s too early to comment on ROI. But our break-even period will be of a year or lesser than that.

Are you planning to go for the next round of funding after securing A and B in the past?
We will be going for the next round of funding from January, 2016. In the series A we had raised $2 million and series B was for closed for an undisclosed amount.

Talk us through your online presence.
We do online retailing with our own portal Chumbak.com along with the marketplaces such as Flipkart, Amazon, Myntra and Jabong.

Are there any new offerings from Chumbak?
We are not a discount-driven brand. Recently, we had introduced the entire apparel range which we expect to contribute around 30 to 40 percent of our total sale. We are constantly innovating and making sure that there is enough newness for the consumer. Each time the consumer is walking in the store there is something new that he can see.

What is your growth percentage YOY?
We are growing by 300 per cent YOY.

What is the average price range of your products?
The price range of our apparel, home and accessories starts from Rs 250 and goes on till Rs 30,000.

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