"We Have Planned to Adopt Omni-Channel Technology": Deepak Bansal,Cantabil

Cantabil Retail India Ltd. was established in February 1989 as a private limited company dealing in wholesale of garment accessories. The company started its garment manufacturing and retailing business in the year 2000 and opened its  first “Cantabil” store in September 2000 in New Delhi. In 2007, the company further forayed into women’s wear segment and further in the year 2010  got listed under the name of Cantabil Retail India Limited. In 2018, the company launched  the  kids wear segment.

Cantabil Retail India Limited currently has a network of 280 exclusive retail outlets in 16 states across the country; the stores are located in malls and other prominent locations and primarily operate under two models - company owned or franchisee owned & operated.

Cantabil started its state-of-the-art world class manufacturing plant in the year 2015 spread across a build-up area of 1.50 Lakh sq. ft. at Bahadurgarh, Haryana to fulfill the company’s own and B2B segment’s demand. This production facility has fully integrated infrastructure and systems required for modern manufacturing to retailing with complete automation. The plant is one of its kind ‘state-of-art’ with a combined capacity to produce 10 Lac pcs. of garments per annum. In an exclusive conversation Deepak Bansal, Director, Cantabil Retail India Ltd talks about expansion plans..

Interview Excerpts..

How would you sum-up the Cantabil Retail’s journey in Indian market so far? What are the key milestones that brand has achieved so far?

Cantabil started in 2000 and we are 19 years old brand now. We initially stated in Delhi but we now have pan India presence with 290 stores. Product categories we started with were menswear and later on we launched ladies wear and last year we introduced kids wear as well. Our journey so far has been mix of ups and downs. We came with an IPO in 2010. It got successfully fully subscribed and we got listed on NSE & BSE. But due to recession in market for few years after 2011, our growth was negative. But we bounced back very well after that. Company last year sales wereapprox. 290 cr. It is the best topline figure which we have achieved since inception. We anticipate growing by a rate of 30% next year. Our share price which once went below Rs 50 is now above Rs 200

Tell us about your current distribution in the online as well as offline space. Going forward, what are the strategies to scale-up the distribution?

Right now we are only present in offline space. We only work through exclusive brand outlets. We have very good distribution of stores in tier-I, tier-II, tier-III towns and beyond in India. Now we have planned to enter online space as well.

What is your assessment about fashion market in India? According to you, what are the factors propelling growth in this segment.

Fashion market is growing in India at a good pace. Two major factors which are propelling the growth are E-commerce and business in tier-III and beyond towns in India.

How are you looking to solidifying the brand presence in tier III and IV cities?

Tier-I and Tier-II towns are very limited in number but it is not so for Tier-III and beyond towns. Scope for growth in Tier-III and IV towns is huge. We are getting very good response in these markets. We have planned to expand in these markets through route of EBO’s only.

Keeping in mind the growing customer preferences, what’s your onmi-channel strategy? Is booming e-commerce an opportunity? What’s your online pivot?

We have planned to adopt omni-channel technology. Omni-channel not only helps to increase business of online space but also of offline space. E-commerce is providing a good opportunity for growth but it should not come at a cost of offline business. We have planned to enter online space through market place platforms.

What all innovations have been introduced by the company this year – in terms of design, customer loyalty, and technology, among others?

We launch new collection every season in sync with contemporary fashion trends. In last few years our marketing strategy has been more inclined towards digital media. We tag every bill at store with customer mobile number to remain in regular touch with customers. We also are doing social media marketing to engage customer on social media. In company we are in the process of adopting complete ERP solution of Microsoft