Rejigged strategy for S Oliver

The leading German lifestyle brand S Oliver is going for a major revamp with consolidation of stores as well as streamlining the supply chain management with the introduction of international best practices. The brand has recently severed the JV tie-up with Orient Craft Brands and has the new partner Design Pod which owns 49 per cent stake in the JV. The brand is going to down size the store formats which are currently of 5,000-6,000 sq. ft. The new format will be of 1,200-2,400 sq. ft. The brand is looking forward to open 200 point of sales within five years, which includes shop-in-shop and EBOs. The brand has partnership with MBOs, Lifestyle and Kapsons in India. Talking about the investment plan, Rijive Ranjan, the owner of Design Pod and MD of S Oliver India, reveals that tier I and tier II cities are under focus and a budget of 20 million euros has been allocated for the same. “To infuse cost efficiency there will be a separate distribution hub for the Asian countries,” he adds. S Oliver, 1.3 billion euros brand, has 6000 points of sales worldwide, and in India its like-to-like growth is 16 per cent and y-o-y growth 25 per cent.