"Our Aim is To Have 40 Stores by 2020": Krsnaa Mehta

India Circus offers contemporary-chic offering wide range of products starting from home décor to accessories. As of September 2018, India Circus by Krsnaa Mehta, is a Godrej & Boyce Mfg. Co. Ltd. With this acquisition, Godrej aims to strengthen the position of India Circus as a lifestyle brand that offers home décor, utilities, personal accessories and fashion products. Collaborating with India Circus is a strategic step towards complementing and strengthening the lifestyle brands of Godrej. In an exclusive conversation Krsnaa Mehta, Founder & Executive Director at India Circus, Godrej & Boyce Mfg Co share more details of the brand.

Kindly shed light on your entrepreneurial journey. What inspired you to launch India Circus?

The journey began in 2011 when a chance conversation with friends made me think of having my own venture. I soon started India Circus and put an entire year together to put technology, finances, product and all in place. And of course, there was so much more than just that. India Circus finally launched as a private label in 2012 and within a year Godrej eyed on us. They loved our modern contemporary designs and what we offered.

The acquisition of India Circus occurred in two phases. The first phase was when Godrej Group invested a controlling stake of 51% in the brand in December 2015. As of September 2018, India Circus is a 100% Godrej & Boyce Mfg. Co. Ltd.  The group instils stability and confidence in India Circus. It is headed by Krsnaa Mehta (India Circus) and Anil Mathur at the Godrej and Boyce end (CEO, Godrej Interio).

According to you how pop culture retail is flourishing in India? Where do you see this market will expand over next years?

We are seeing a change in pop culture today. And with that, it is natural for retail brands to offer products that are adopted accordingly. Today, we see a lot of influence from Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook, and a plethora of sites which give our audience the ideas they need to decorate their homes and that’s why we are here providing them with such great products. The market is going to expand and see a lot of growth in the coming years.

Kindly shed light on your current distribution. Going forward, what are the plans to scale up the distribution?

The brand is currently available through our own stores, the online platform, shop-in-shop formats, online marketing places like Myntra, Amazon, Pepperfry and so on. This way, we have diversified distribution channels - both offline and online.

Being a Godrej acquired brand, does it ease the operational hurdles for you?

The group instils stability and confidence in India Circus. It is headed by Krsnaa Mehta (India Circus) and Anil Mathur at the Godrej and Boyce end (CEO, Godrej Interio).Godrej definitely does ease operational hurdles. It’s vast resources and experience, help expand our reach and ease out of operational hurdles if and whenever there are any.

 Tell us about your Omnichannel strategy, along with your bestsellers and pricing strategy? 

With 5 stores, an online platform and shop-in-shop at a few cities, we intend to have a Omni-channel presence and look forward to being present in as many cities as possible by the end of 2019.

At last, kindly highlight your growth plans?

We are looking at growing online and offline at a rapid pace.  Currently we have 5 stores in total, 2 in Mumbai, 1 each in Chennai, Bangalore and Kolkata. We are looking at a COCO (company owned, company operated) & franchise model to expand our presence across cities. Our aim is to have 40 stores by 2020, which is almost over 1 store per month. We are also looking at being globally accessible by 2020 with stores in London, Hong Kong, New York City and many more.

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