What was the idea behind setting up of Future Brands?

Future Brands is about brands as intellectual property. Our interest is to build the value of the brand and to that we intend to introduce more private labels and also revamp and market by positioning some of these private label offerings as strong brands at a national level in the long run.

We will spend around Rs 25 crore to market the products. We will add another 5-6 new products across categories this year.

What are the categories that you plan to enter this year?

We are in the process of developing a sports wear brand and a skin care & cosmetics brand. Both these will cater to the mass market and our plans around them will concretize in next four months.

The sports wear brand will include apparel, accessories and footwear. We are not looking at sports gear as of now. We see great potential in the mass market opportunity and hope to open out the market.

How is the brand sensibility different for each of the retail formats like Big Bazaar, Pantaloons and Central?

Our sense of a bazaar is a crowded and vibrant place that welcomes everybody. Big Bazaar is for a particular audience and is price point driven in terms of classification. It is a format that allows the consumer to buy without getting intimidated.

Big Bazaar has become a window where the consumer expects more value at good prices. Pantaloons caters to a different set of consumers which has already developed a certain sensibility around fashion and is more high end.

Central is where we are hosting every brand in India. It is more about other brands than our own private labels.

At a time when all consumer durable brands have raised their prices on the back of input cost pressure, how is your durables brand Koryo faring?

We are not looking at making Koryo a national brand as we are doing for our other private labels. Koryo has been growing by 60 per cent year on year within our existing retail environment and we intend to keep it that way.

Pricing is a relative phenomenon to the market and our strength has been to be able to deliver the prices and create a portfolio that meets the Indian needs. We are looking at developing the high-end product portfolio under Koryo and also undertake some initiatives in select markets to strengthen the brand.

Apparel seems to be your area of focus. What category within apparel appeals to you the most?

Apparel accounts for nearly 80 per cent of our topline growth and hence we are bullish on the opportunity there. Denims is a growing category for us since there aren't many credible fashion options at mass market price.

While there is ample opportunity at the premium end of denims, we believe that the real opportunity in denim lies in the mass end. With a view to leverage this opportunity we have introduced new brands like DJ&C and have re-launched our Bare brand.

So far the tendency has been to anchor denims around prices but we are moving beyond this to provide what India needs and not impose a language that they don't know.